Big Tech’s food-delivery apps face a grassroots revolt
At the start of the pandemic, food delivery apps, including the 'Big 3' — Grubhub, Uber Eats, and DoorDash — were hailed as saviors, facilitating a takeout boom meant to keep restaurants and their staffs working. But eateries were quickly confronted by a harsh reality: These Silicon Valley and Wall Street–backed firms, which together dominate 93 percent of the market share nationwide, are designed to scrape money out of local businesses and send it to shareholders. Now, in cities around the country, restaurant owners are fighting back, forming local-delivery co-ops in an attempt to drive the third-party interlopers out.
Why the surge of co-ops and other ag collectives during the pandemic could continue
The pandemic has given the idea of agricultural collectives a boost—in some instances, a gigantic boost. In 2020, when the coronavirus disrupted industrial food systems, causing widespread backlogs and shortages, local co-ops, farm collectives, food hubs, and other distribution projects found fresh relevance. Some food hubs reported revenue increases as high as 500 percent, according to a May 2021 report from the Wallace Center, a nonprofit that supports community food and farming solutions.(No paywall)
A Brooklyn co-op hustles as food demand spikes
Like other grocery stores in New York City, the Park Slope Food Co-op, in Brooklyn, is out of hand sanitizer. But even with 17,000 members and weekly sales of $1.23 million, shelves at one of the nation’s oldest and largest food co-ops are nearly full. “We got the hang of it very quickly after the initial enormous jolt of extra purchases hit 15 days ago,” Joe Holtz, the co-op’s general manager and co-founder, said late last week. (No paywall)
Big dairy ‘co-op’ illustrates what’s wrong with modern agricultural co-ops
Dairy Farmers of America, the 20-year-old product of the largest merger in dairy cooperative history, has become a vertically integrated “corporation” that enjoys the legal benefits of a cooperative while increasingly serving its own bottom line rather than its member farmers, says Washington Monthly.
Farmers markets, food co-ops build sense of community
Americans shop at farmers markets and join food cooperatives because they enjoy knowing who grows their food and because the commitment to local food makes them feel part of a community pursuing a healthy lifestyle and a sustainable environment, according to a U-Iowa study.