Equity, Environmentalism, and Conscious Consumerism
book review, Grocery Stores, Consumerism, Activism
First paragraph: Two crises pervading the current consciousness of society—the COVID-19 health crisis and the ongoing crisis of police brutality against Black Americans as evident in the recent murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis—make Craig B. Upright’s Grocery Activism: The Radical History of Food Cooperatives in Minnesota particularly timely and relevant, though neither is the direct topic of the book. Upright outlines how grocery co-ops were able to find, sustain, and promote a niche in the market through a symbiotic relationship with the natural and organic foods movement. Readers encounter a variety of voices from Minnesota’s rich history of food co-ops, and while some voices are notably missing, the book provides a foothold into exploring the broad environmental, social, and eco­nomic implications of the aphorism Upright notes in the text: “Food is power. . . ."
Agriculture, Environmental sciences, Geography. Anthropology. Recreation, Technology, Social Sciences, Nutrition. Foods and food supply, Recreation. Leisure, Urban groups. The city. Urban sociology, Regional planning, Communities. Classes. Races, Human ecology. Anthropogeography, Home economics