The Food Conspiracy Cookbook: How to Start a Neighborhood Buying Club and Eat Cheaply

When a group of people want to buy food cheaply, but don't want to pay rent or salaries or have a store, and are all willing to work, they have a food conspiracy. Buying club and co-op are other names for this kind of organization, but those names also apply to groups with paid managers, store fronts and profits. The food conspiracy movement includes people who want an alternative to supermarket shopping and people who desire direct control of the kind and quality of the food they eat, as well as its price. The first food conspiracy started in Berkeley, California, two months after the People's Park struggle. It has subsequently spread to many large cities and among people of all economic backgrounds. In July, 1969, three Berkeley residents -- Vivian, Jim and Anita, -- met in Vivian's backyard simply to figure out how they could buy food cheaply. Jim knew about the farmers' market and had a VW bus. Vivian knew about organic food. Anita knew how to formulate questions and how to organize. To enlist others to join them, they started writing blurbs in alternative newspapers and putting out pamphlets entitled variously "eat to conspire" and "conspire to eat." They posted a sign near a grocery store in the student neighborhood, ant placed notices in People's Park bulletins and in the Tenant's Union Newsletter and soon there was a group of us.