A Breath of Fresh Air: How Food Co-ops Benefit Their Communities & Our Environment

By Jerry Nash

Food co-ops are grocery stores that are owned by thousands of members of their communities and that exist to meet the needs and desires of that community. Almost every food co-op focuses on selling as much locally, sustainably produced food as possible. One such co-op is Prairie Food Co-op, which has been organizing since 2012 to open in Lombard, and will serve the greater DuPage area.*

Rendering of future store at 109 S. Main St., Lombard

Supporting more local farmers and food producers means that more money stays here in our community, but food co-ops are also great for our environment by supporting locally, sustainably produced food. We will aim to provide as much produce as possible that is grown organically with no or minimal amounts of pesticides and herbicides. Much data exists that show the devastating effects of these toxins in our environment from contaminating our water, soil, and air to harming fish, birds, and beneficial insects, in addition to being linked to various forms of cancer. We will be supporting farmers who understand the value of crop rotation, cover crops, integrating crops with livestock, and other sustainable farming practices.

When Prairie Food Co-op buys an eggplant from a farmer in Illinois, we are negating the CO2 emitted from a thousand-mile journey that that eggplant otherwise might take from California or Mexico. Fuel is saved, and refrigerants that are commonly used to keep produce cooled as it travels to get to our store are avoided. Produce that is shipped a long distance often travels in chambers of ethylene gas to accelerate the ripening process. Ethylene itself is a naturally occurring gas emitted from some produce, but when used in high quantities it can leave traces of phosphorus and arsenic on the food we eat.

When you consider that Illinois only grows 4% of the food we currently consume, even though we have some of the best farmland in the world, you realize that our industrial food system is unsustainable at minimum and catastrophic at most. Food co-ops seek to reverse this trend.

Food co-ops waste less and reuse and recycle cardboard, glass, and plastics at a much higher rate than conventional grocery stores, but this isn’t the only area in which food co-ops excel. They also tend to have more relationships with their community, so instead of throwing food out that is otherwise still OK to eat, many food co-ops have a food bank or local soup kitchen to donate their food to. This reduces food waste and is another way of lessening our environmental impact.

So much waste is produced by food packaging alone, and food co-ops have been avoiding excessive packaging for decades. Every food co-op shopper knows about the bulk section—the pride of every food co-op—where you can find spices, coffee, tea, nuts, flours, baking supplies, cereals, dried fruit, and whatever else you can think of that can fit into a plastic bag, or, better yet, your own container, for you to purchase without any added packaging.

Another plus: food co-ops are continuously innovating, and Prairie Food Co-op will be no different. Possibilities include using innovative technology to reduce energy and thermal waste in our heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems, and simple solutions such as L.E.D. and presence-detecting lighting. While we won’t be able to implement every earth-friendly technology available, we will always strive to make our environmental footprint as small as possible.

Although one food co-op can’t save the world, we can contribute to making our community a little more eco-friendly. And with every food co-op that successfully opens, the chances increase for other food co-ops to open in other communities, thus significantly reducing our carbon footprint one community at a time. 

If you live in the DuPage community or just want to help build a more eco-friendly grocery store, check Prairie Food Co-op out and consider PFC Ownership at prairiefood.coop. It’s PFC Owners who are the building blocks of our store. 

Contact: Jerry Nash
Co-founder and Outreach Coordinator

Prairie Food Co-op
Jerry@prairiefood.coop

*Over 1400 community members have joined Prairie Food Co-op since it began organizing in 2012. Recently PFC secured a site at 109 S. Main St. in downtown Lombard. However, the co-op must raise $3.1M from its community of PFC Owners to fund the building of the store. Its first Community Investment Program campaign recently ended having raised just over $1 Million.