PEOPLE-CENTERED

Posted January 19, 2017 by Dan

Creating Social Change, Together

The extraordinary political events taking place in our country are affecting us deeply here at Real Pickles Co-operative, as they are for so many others. They highlight how far we have to go to build the just, democratic, and sustainable society we wish to see. We are reminded why all of us here take Real Pickles’ social mission so seriously, and why we must continue to work as hard as we can in pursuit of it. It is also now as clear as ever that we cannot do this work alone.

One essential lesson of the 2016 presidential election – among many others – seems to be that our economic system is truly not working for many millions of Americans, and that this fact cannot be ignored. The Dow Jones may be up, the economy may be growing, corporate profits and the 1% may be doing great. But many are being left behind. Real change is needed, and the big question is what kind of change will we work toward?

At Real Pickles, we are committed to creating positive social change based on an inclusive vision that prioritizes equality, justice, health, democracy, and sustainability. We are seeking to build a system that offers real opportunity to all people to live healthy and fulfilling lives. This means moving away from corporate capitalism and toward an economy where small, community-oriented businesses are the norm. It means making hatred and discrimination things of the past. And – urgently – it means doing whatever we can to avoid disastrous climate change.

Thankfully, we are far from alone in these efforts. A strong example is the New Economy Coalition (of which we are a proud member), whose vision is “a new economy…that meets human needs, enhances the quality of life, and allows us to live in balance with nature…a future where capital (wealth and the means of creating it) is a tool of the people, not the other way around.” As a diverse array of 175 member organizations, each is pursuing these goals in its own ways, and also coming together wherever and however possible to build on each other’s efforts. So much essential work is happening within this network, and we are grateful for the opportunities we’ve had to collaborate with such members as Equity Trust, Co-op Power, Cooperative Fund of New England, Cutting Edge Capital, Tellus Institute, Slow Money, and Project Equity.

Our work of creating a more sustainable food system is supported by many thriving organizations. Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA), for example, has been paving the way for countless food and farm businesses here in western Massachusetts to reach success as a result of their highly effective marketing of the “buy local” concept. The Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (NESAWG), a 12-state network of over 500 organizations, is leading the way in building a vibrant regional food system. The Northeast Organic Farming Association and Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association are each in their fifth decade as influential developers of the organic agriculture movement.

We are also encouraged to be seeing the rise of the co-operative movement which is building a valuable alternative to the traditional corporate model. Worker co-operatives are sprouting up here in western Massachusetts (and elsewhere), with the Valley Alliance of Worker Cooperatives providing a forum for area worker co-ops to collaborate as well as offering assistance to start-ups. Around the Northeast, we are seeing more and more consumer food co-ops both getting started and expanding, with support from the Neighboring Food Co-op Association – a regional network of food co-ops representing combined memberships of over 107,000 and annual revenue of $240 million.

While the primary focus of Real Pickles’ work is the Northeast U.S., we recognize the importance of maintaining a national and global perspective, as well. We admire and support the grassroots climate activism of 350.org, and have participated in climate marches in NYC and Washington DC. The National Co-op Business Association, a national trade group of co-ops, is doing important work developing and advancing co-operative enterprise both in the U.S. and internationally. The Cornucopia Institute is providing the public with essential reporting highlighting both the problems of industrial agriculture and beneficial practices of family-scale organic farmers. Over the past year, thousands have been camped out on the front lines protesting plans to build the Dakota Access Pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation (we recently made an exception to our Northeast-only distribution commitment to send a donation of fermented vegetables to the protesters).

We’re deeply fortunate to be working with so many effective partners who share our commitment to a just, democratic, and sustainable society. At the same time, we know that our approach to creating social change, as well as the scope of our own network, represents merely a narrow slice of what is happening and what must happen if we are to truly achieve our vision. In the months and years ahead, we commit to redoubling our efforts to create real and positive change by building on the work we’re already doing and by seeking out new connections and partnerships across our region, nationally and globally. We hope you will join us.

Posted May 13, 2014 by Kristin

One Year as a Co-op

We just wrapped up our fiscal year at Real Pickles. In many ways, it was a typical year for the business. Interest in fermented foods has continued to rise, and the year was another strong one for us. As is often the case, the uncertainties of the growing season necessitated some creative problem solving (a wet spring in the Pioneer Valley resulted in much less early cabbage than we were expecting) but in the end we got all of the fresh ingredients we were hoping for and processed over 300,000 pounds of Northeast-grown vegetables during our production season, an increase of about 40% over last year!

What was different about this past year, however, was our structure as a business. May 9th marks the day that Real Pickles made the transition from a sole proprietorship to co-operative ownership. It took a lot of work to become a co-op, and now the process of running the business involves both shared effort and reward for our new group of member-owners. Some of what we encountered during our first year was expected and other things took us a little more by surprise. As an increasing number of businesses consider transitioning to the co-operative model, we want to share some of our experiences so far.

Learning to be Business Owners

The founding worker-owners on May 9th, 2013 getting ready to
sign the legal documents to convert Real Pickles to a co-operative.
(Photo credit: David J. Singer, Esq.)

As Real Pickles made the structural shift to becoming a co-op owned by its employees, those of us who hadn’t previously been owners knew we would have to make the mental shift to thinking like owners. Looking back a couple years, as the founding co-op group worked together to figure out if Real Pickles’ transition to a worker co-op made sense for the business and for each of us as individual potential owners, we spent quite a bit of time on activities that served the joint purpose of strategic planning and practicing the art of ownership. Inspired by our friends at South Mountain Company, we prepared an exercise that encouraged us to articulate what kind of growth we want for Real Pickles, and the possible outcomes of different approaches for our future. Since completing the transition, we’ve continued this important strategic planning work.

To further foster a learning culture in our business, we started holding internal classes on five core topics – Social Mission, History of Real Pickles, the Co-operative Movement, Finances and Governance. While all staff people attend, all potential worker-owners are required to complete these classes before becoming part of the co-op. This has given us all a common base of understanding of Real Pickles as a co-operative business and some of the tools we need to be effective business owners.

The need to think like owners was highlighted when, recently, we were looking at increasing certain benefits for staff – in this case, starting a Real Pickles sponsored retirement account, increasing our paid time off and implementing a family leave policy. While we as employees were, in principle, supportive of enhancing benefits for ourselves and our co-workers, as owners we also had to take responsibility for the impacts of these decisions on the business that provides us with employment. When we looked at the costs within our budget for next year, we ended up proceeding more cautiously, scaling back the new benefits for the upcoming year with the understanding that we will revisit this topic after we have another year as a co-op under our belts and can envision what long term sustainability looks like.

Another example of new owners having to broaden their perspectives came recently when it was time for Dan’s first annual review as General Manager. A small group of board members was formed to conduct the review process. This process of evaluating our General Manager — who is also the founder, hired many of us and who many of us report to directly — exemplifies how the workers have had to step up and manage multiple roles with this new co-operative. In the end, the review went extremely well. It was a powerful experience for all involved and a clear example of what makes a co-op different from other business models.

Charting Our Future

Last May, as we looked forward, we knew that if the co-op was to be successful over time we would have to make worker-ownership appealing to more staff people. We expected that other employees would see the value of being worker-owners but didn’t expect it to happen so quickly. Even before we officially made the transition to a co-op, two more staff people expressed their interest. In the midst of working on our business strategy, investment campaign, incorporation and legal documents, we had to scramble to articulate the “path to worker-ownership” at Real Pickles, with an eye to finding the balance between making the ownership process clear and accessible to workers while maintaining a high level of training and engagement for potential new members.

We have also been careful to create clear distinctions between the responsibilities of the worker-owners, the board and staff. We wrote our bylaws with an eye to these issues but, taking a cue from fellow worker co-op Equal Exchange, we later also created a governance matrix that both lays out responsibilities from our bylaws (such as only a consensus of all worker-owners can amend Real Pickles’ mission) and clearly communicates what body is accountable for other areas of the business (for example, the General Manager creates the annual budget to be ratified by the Board of Directors). This clarity of responsibilities has served us well so far and the clear delineation of authority and oversight has helped us to work efficiently.

For Brendan Flannelly-King, Real Pickles’ facility manager and one of the five founding members, much of the work setting up the co-op felt abstract and it was often difficult to imagine what it would be like to be an owner. “In some ways,” he says, “owning the business has been easier than I had expected. It’s hard work, but since the worker-owners as a body aren’t involved in operations, we have been able to really focus on strategy.” As we look to our second year, we’re working to anticipate the systems that will help us to be even better business owners, and will help make future decisions as clear and simple as possible.

Real Pickles & Our Community

Real Pickles as a sole proprietorship has long had a strong network of support within the community and we knew we would need to engage that network in a variety of ways as we made the transition to a cooperative. One thing we did was to gather a group of community members as a Board of Advisors to help us look at strategic planning, particularly the issue of how to grow our business in a way that is thoughtful and sustainable. This topic has provided fodder for energetic meetings with lots of debate about competition, mechanization, growth and sustainability. We as worker-owners have been inspired and motivated by these discussions.

We have also found that the outreach work we did throughout the months leading up to our co-op transition has continued to benefit us. Real Pickles’ local following has grown and become even more dedicated – we sold over 7000 more jars in the Pioneer Valley in 2013 than we did in 2012! It is encouraging that worker cooperation appears to have value not only for our own employees but also for customers who can see its benefits for the wider community.

Central to our vision as a sustainable, mission-based co-operative is further engaging our community — the growers who supply us, the farm stands, food co-ops, natural food stores and other businesses that carry our products, the people who purchase them, the investors who helped finance our transition, and the co-ops that have supported us along the way — as we chart the future success of our business. Thanks to the many people who have supported us in this exciting first year of what we hope will be a long and inspiring journey. A co-op is a community effort, and we could not have done it without you!

The current Real Pickles worker-owners (from l to r): Kristin Howard,
Dan Rosenberg, Andy Van Assche, Rebecca Lay, Brendan Flannelly-King,
Annie Winkler, Addie Rose Holland. (Photo credit: Heather Wernimont)

Posted October 10, 2012 by Dan

We’re Going Co-op!

by Dan and Addie

We have big news to share: Real Pickles is becoming a worker co-operative!

Along with Real Pickles staff, we have been laying the groundwork for a co-op transition for a number of months now, and earlier this summer – during the UN’s International Year of Cooperatives – we officially decided to make the switch! Everyone here is excited about the plan to convert Real Pickles to a worker co-op, and we will be working to make it happen over the next few months. While the two of us will no longer be the sole owners of the business, we will continue to be part of Real Pickles as worker-owners and managers. We think a worker co-op structure will be an outstanding way to help ensure that Real Pickles will succeed far into the future – producing delicious and healthy food for people and making a lasting contribution to building a new and better food system!

Why co-op?

We have worked hard over the last decade to build up our business: creating and scaling up our recipes, developing markets for our products, and educating folks about fermented pickles. We have figured out how to manage the challenges posed by our commitment to sourcing locally – purchasing and processing our year’s supply of vegetables all within the short span of the New England growing season. And three years ago, when we had completely outgrown the community kitchen we were using, we made the big leap to our own organic food facility.

Now, after eleven years in business, it is quite gratifying to be able to say that Real Pickles has achieved a certain level of success as an organic food business. We are not making big bucks, but things are financially solid. We have a fantastic staff of twelve. We operate out of a 100% solar-powered, energy-efficient facility. We are supplying over 300 stores around the Northeast with delicious, nourishing food. And, we are supporting local farms with annual purchases nearing 200,000 pounds of certified organic vegetables. Yes!

Where does one go from here? These days, the typical path for a business like ours involves continued rapid growth followed by selling out to a large industrial food corporation. Entrepreneurs who have gone this route will offer a variety of rationalizations for why such a move can be socially beneficial. As we see it, leaving it to big corporations to run the world leads to very bad social outcomes. As far as Real Pickles goes, our deeply socially-responsible approach to doing business doesn’t fit with big corporations’ drive for monetary profit. We are committed to keeping Real Pickles a small business working to truly change the food system, and so we clearly must choose a different direction.

We have decided, then, to try to help re-write the standard storyline for a successful organic food business. We are interested in creating a new structure for the business which will support both its continued financial success and success in contributing to a better world. And, while neither of us have any plans to leave Real Pickles anytime soon, we want this structure to help ensure that Real Pickles can be viable in the long run by eventually coming to be able to thrive without dependence on its founders.

As we see it, a worker co-operative is the most promising structure for Real Pickles. As a worker co-op, Real Pickles’ social mission and guiding principles will be inscribed in its articles of organization and bylaws, and be made difficult to change. The business will stay rooted in the community. Its owners will continue to be local residents who are directly involved in the day-to-day operations, and they will be highly unlikely to re-locate the business out of the area. A worker co-op structure will also give members of our staff the opportunity to share in the decision-making and profits. We expect this opportunity will serve as an important contributor to Real Pickles’ future success as it incentivizes our excellent staff to remain at Real Pickles on a long-term basis.

How will it work?

Five of us here at Real Pickles have made the commitment to sign on as founding worker-owners of the co-operative: Brendan Flannelly-King, Annie Winkler, Kristin Howard, and us (Dan & Addie). Our hope is that additional staff members will join us following the transition. According to our plan, staff will become eligible for worker-ownership following a year of employment at Real Pickles. Once approved by the existing membership, a staff member will purchase one share of common stock in the co-operative, entitling him or her to a single vote in co-op affairs and to a share of the profits through annual patronage dividends.

As a co-operative, Real Pickles will be governed by the worker-owners via a board of directors. On a day-to-day level, our current management structure will remain in place. The business will continue to be managed in as participatory and inclusive a manner as possible, an approach which has been greatly successful in contributing to a satisfying and productive Real Pickles workplace.

This fall, we will be working through the remaining steps necessary to making our co-op transition happen. A key task will be to raise additional funds so that the worker-owners can purchase the business. As plans develop we will keep you updated, so stay tuned! It’s an exciting time here at Real Pickles. We are hopeful that at the end of this process – and the beginning of a new chapter – Real Pickles will be in an excellent position to be producing delicious and healthy food for people, providing meaningful and satisfying work for its staff, and making positive social change in the food system for many decades to come!

We are excited to announce the latest step in our plan to go co-op: An opportunity to invest in Real Pickles! Offered to MA & VT residents, this is an excellent way to support our transition to a co-operative structure as well as our continuing work in helping to build a vibrant, regional, organic food system. Read more: www.realpickles.com/invest

Posted April 5, 2012 by Dan

People Power, Not Corporate Power

Big corporations are a central part of modern American life: We buy an overwhelming proportion of our goods and services from them, we absorb their advertisements nearly everywhere we go, we invest our retirement savings in them, and we depend on the latest twists and turns in their average stock values to tell us whether our lives are headed in the right direction. These institutions have brought us many material wonders, to be sure. But what, we might ask, is their collective impact on our pursuit of loftier goals? Does the dominance of big corporations in our society, for example, make it harder to achieve sustainability, social justice, or true democracy? Might it be that such institutions actually put these kinds of social achievements fundamentally out of reach? If so, what can be done?

In the aftermath of two recent federal court decisions – both, as it happens, ultimately threatening to impact a western Massachusetts food business like Real Pickles – I think these are questions worth exploring.

Cukes, Not Nukes

A couple weeks ago, many of us on the Real Pickles staff traveled to nearby Brattleboro, VT, to protest the continued operation of our neighbor, the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. With our “Cukes Not Nukes!” protest signs, we joined over 1,000 people in marching to the local headquarters of its absentee owner, New Orleans-based Entergy Corporation, where 130 people were then arrested in a non-violent civil disobedience action.

There have long been plenty of good reasons to shut down VT Yankee. The question of how to responsibly manage its waste seems hopelessly unanswerable, given the million-year duration of its radioactivity. And, a major failure at the reactor could make a sizable portion of New England uninhabitable for thousands of years. While such a prospect was real even when VT Yankee first went on-line in 1972, it has become ever more possible as the reactor has grown older and experienced a longer and longer list of mishaps.

In recent months, however, another reason to protest has come to the fore. And, that is the extreme level of corporate power revealed in the decision-making process about VT Yankee’s future, as well as a corresponding failure of democracy. VT Yankee’s original 40-year operating license expired on March 21 (the day before the march). But, unfortunately, rather than now heading toward decommissioning, VT Yankee continues to operate. Last year, in the midst of an unfolding nuclear disaster in Japan, the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) granted a 20-year license extension, a lucrative prize which Entergy worked for years to obtain.

How could the NRC make such a decision? After all, VT Yankee is the very same reactor model as those that failed at Fukushima. Serious problems continue to plague VT Yankee, and the consequences of a major accident there would be profound. It is difficult to view the result as anything other than the undue influence of a powerful energy corporation faced with the opportunity for massive financial gain. Perhaps, a “corporate mind-set” was at play, as well – a phenomenon which leads people to have outsized faith in corporations to bring about positive societal outcomes. I view the corporate mind-set as a consequence of big corporations’ pervasive influence in society.

In January of this year, even more serious questions about democracy were raised when a federal court invalidated the state of Vermont’s decision to deny Entergy permission to continue operating the plant beyond March 21. The NRC had given its permission, but Entergy had previously signed a contract with Vermont agreeing it also would need the state’s go-ahead to keep the reactor going. After a long public debate during which it was firmly established that the clear majority of citizens wanted VT Yankee shut down, Vermont’s legislature sided with the citizenry. But, Entergy sued. It hired a team of superstar lawyers, spent millions of dollars, and – in a wildly off-base court decision – won. Vermont has appealed the decision. For now, however, corporate power has won. And the inhabitants of New England remain at risk.

Real Food, Not Frankenfood

Another recent court victory for a big corporation raises many of the same questions as the Vermont Yankee story. It also hits particularly close to home for an organic food business like ours. This case involves Monsanto, the world’s biggest marketer of genetically engineered seeds.

Nuclear power is a very risky business, though its risks are fairly well understood. With genetic engineering, the risks are similarly great. Yet, it’s hard to even predict all that could go wrong. The problem is this: our understanding of living organisms is insufficient to warrant messing around with their basic genetic structure in this way. Living organisms are highly complex. To think that inserting a fish gene into a tomato will not produce a long list of unforeseen effects is naive and dangerous. Will new carcinogens or allergens be created? Will the plants cross-breed with wild plants and then undermine the health of our ecosystems in some unexpected way? It turns out that such things are already beginning to happen. To fully understand the impacts of genetic engineering could take decades, by which time it will be far too late to rein in this technology.

It is a serious problem that the federal government has essentially decided that any and all genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are safe and require no testing, raising the question again about the influence of corporate power on our government. The most recent win for the biotech companies is just as troubling. Last year, a coalition of organic farmers, seed companies, and advocacy organizations decided to challenge Monsanto for its aggressive actions against farmers whose crops have been contaminated by Monsanto’s GMOs. The contamination happens when GMO pollen gets carried by wind or insects onto other farms, and then cross-pollinates with non-GMO crops. Farmers who have never purchased genetically modified seed suddenly find GMO crops growing in their fields.

GMO contamination threatens the existence of organic agriculture – and poses huge threats to all agriculture. One would expect farmers to have legal recourse against the biotech companies. After all, these corporations are clearly guilty of “genetic trespass”, robbing farmers of the organic or non-GMO status of their crops. In actuality, Monsanto has, for years now, been harassing and successfully suing farmers for patent infringement whenever their GMOs are found in those farmers’ fields. It has made no difference that the farmers neither planted Monsanto’s seeds nor wanted them in their fields in the first place.

In response, the group of farmers, seed companies, and non-profits filed a lawsuit against Monsanto, preemptively seeking protection from patent infringement should the farmers represented ever find their crops contaminated by Monsanto’s GMOs. Monsanto hired a team of top lawyers and fought back hard. In February, the judge threw out the case, ridiculing the plaintiffs for a “transparent effort to create controversy where none exists.” The case is now being appealed. One is again left to wonder about the prospects for a society where corporate influence is so pervasive.

People Power

Is there another path? Is an economy dominated by big corporations the only way?

My opinion is that it’s time to dig out that old classic, Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered (1973), and consider the advice of E.F. Schumacher: “Today, we suffer from an almost universal idolatry of giantism. It is therefore necessary to insist on the virtues of smallness.” Forty years later, “bigger is better” remains the conventional wisdom. Yet the evidence tells us that bigger is not always better. Increasingly, the idolatry of giantism brings us to a place in which profit-driven corporate influence wins the day, regardless of what ordinary people want or need. If we instead want a society run by the people, many changes are needed. Among the most essential is a shift from an economy dominated by big corporations to one oriented around small businesses (especially those with democratic structures, like cooperatives).

In a corporate-dominated economy, corporations hold the power. In an economy predominantly made up of small businesses (even if big businesses still exist), it is possible for people to determine the direction of their lives, and of society. We are no longer battling the excessive influence of big business on government decision-making processes, nor the pervasive “corporate mind-set”, nor the effects of all that slick advertising. What happens when businesses misbehave, acting against societal interests? Small businesses can be held responsible for their actions; in a corporate economy, the big corporations always seem to evade true accountability. Small businesses are less likely to misbehave in the first place. Only a huge absentee corporation – headquartered 1,500 miles away and beholden to the financial interests of investors on Wall Street – could possibly fight so hard to keep Vermont Yankee running.

To move to a small business economy, we will need entrepreneurs starting up new small businesses – and keeping them small. Customers supporting these businesses with their purchases. Millions moving their money out of the big banks and into community banks. Investors shifting their money from Wall Street to local and regional enterprises. Masses of people pushing for political change thru protest movements like Occupy Wall Street. In other words, we must choose to make use of the people power we do have, however limited it may be. We will then see that we have what it takes to build a green, socially-just, and democratic society.

Posted October 28, 2011 by Dan

Occupy Wall Street: An Interview

As I noted last time, on the subject of Occupy Wall Street (OWS) and Real Pickles: We are doing essentially the same work, even if employing different approaches to making change in the world, and from mostly different locales. But, some actual connections are being made these days between the two efforts. A couple weeks back, we shipped two gallons of sauerkraut as food donation to the protesters in NYC as a show of support. And, recently some staff members from Real Pickles have made opportunities to drop in on the protests. Joe Mirkin, Real Pickles’ stellar facility manager and co-production manager, joined in on the events in NYC for a weekend and came back with some thoughts to share. Here are some excerpts from an interview I did with him:

DR: What prompted you to travel down to NYC to join in with OWS?

JM: After several weeks of reading news reports, it seemed the protests were gaining steam. What at first seemed like a flash in the pan quickly turned into the genesis of a popular uprising. Hey, who doesn’t want to be part of a popular uprising? So I got restless, grabbed a couple friends, some sleeping bags, and drove down to OWS. I also have friends in NYC who had participated in the OWS protests in the weeks prior to my visit. They all said the same thing, “You gotta get down here and see it for yourself!” Which is now what I tell everybody who is interested in the goings on of OWS: Go see it for yourself!

DR: When you arrived, did you find what you were expecting? How did things match your expectations? What surprised you?

JM: Heading down there, I figured I’d find just a bunch of young people having meetings and sleeping in the park. What I encountered was deeply surprising and, for the most part, encouraging and inspiring. Volunteer cleaning crews roaming the park 24/7 collecting trash and recyclables; a composting/gray water operation for recycling food scraps; a makeshift kitchen serving thousands of decent meals every day; an extraordinarily well-stocked, well-organized People’s Library fully staffed with friendly and competent librarians offering free reading material on all matter of subjects; people of all ages and various social classes; successfully facilitated General Assembly meetings with hundreds or thousands of participants; spontaneous classes and workshops organized and attended by interested people; clothing and bedding donations arriving by the carload, all sorted by volunteers and given away for free to anyone in need.
One of the things I did expect to find was a very significant amount of police present, and that was certainly the reality. The NYPD has these surveillance towers which can raise and lower from the ground to a height of almost 30′. The only other times I’ve seen anything like them were at Obama’s inauguration in Washington, D.C., and overlooking Beale St in Memphis, TN. The police apparently prepare for the worst when it comes to large gatherings of peaceful people, whether it be in protest, in celebration, or to hear blues music and eat barbecue.

DR: How do you see OWS fitting into the work for social change that needs to happen?

JM: Having untold numbers of people marching and demonstrating in the streets everyday allows for a whole slew of other social change to take place. The primary benefit I can see is that the protests allow all the groups that were already engaged in making change to expand their imaginations on what kind of progress is possible. They can demand more in their lists of goals, they can intensify and amplify their tactics for winning change, and they can build relationships and coalitions with other groups that may not have previously had specific overlapping issues. You’ve seen all sorts of labor unions come out in support of OWS, and now you’re seeing OWS link up with other movements for change around the city. The same dynamic is playing out at Occupy protests all over the country. I don’t think the camping out part alone is going to bring down corporate greed and all its associated ills, but it does seem to be a catalyst for a more networked and energized movement for justice.

DR: What’s your assessment of the “message” coming out of OWS? What do you think of the criticism that the movement doesn’t have a clear, coherent message?

JM: The moment people at OWS begin pushing a single demand is the moment a lot of people will decide to stop participating. The real strength of the protest – the actual power that makes the city and the banks so bloody nervous – is the broad base of support OWS has. Any action taken to weed out some issues in favor of others will only weaken this power, and so it is best to avoid any such thing, in my estimation. That certainly does not preclude OWS from issuing messages about the protest, which they have done. Nor should it keep individuals from teaching and talking to others about those issues close to them, which some people do. Keeping the message as broad as the 99% of people in this country is no easy task, least of all because of the pressure from media to present clear, concise demands. But it’s well worth the effort if OWS is to maintain the strength it has gained.

DR: After posting my blog entry, “Occupy Wall Street and Organic Pickles”, we heard from a couple Real Pickles customers who were frustrated over our support for OWS. They cited several reasons for opposing the protests. One was that the protests were “disruptive”. Any thoughts about that, having participated in them?

JM: My response to that criticism is: Ask the millions of people losing their housing due to mortgage lending practices if they consider the protesters “disruptive”. Ask any farmer who’s been taken to court by Monsanto for intellectual property theft if they think OWS is “disruptive”. Ask any teacher or firefighter in Wisconsin if the word they would use to describe OWS protesters is “disruptive”. It goes on and on. Hard to imagine that a single protest in New York City can be even remotely close to being as disruptive as modern-day global neoliberal capitalism.

DR: Another criticism we heard was that direct action (i.e.-street demonstrations) is not the way to go about changing the world. Instead, it is best to follow Gandhi’s precept to “be the change you want to see in the world” and focus on, say, making organic pickles from locally-grown vegetables or buying locally-grown food. What are your thoughts about the relative importance of these different approaches to making social change?

JM: Changing the systems of food production and consumption in this country is of obvious importance to creating a better world. Sometimes in order to achieve your goal you need a diversity of tactics. Say you want to purchase food that was produced by workers who are paid fair wages. It may be as easy as going to a different store or market and maybe spending a little bit more money. But, sometimes one may have to do as the Coalition of Immokalee Workers down in Florida has done, and head out to the streets to demand that corporate grocery chains pay fair prices for hand-picked produce!

Posted October 14, 2011 by Dan

Occupy Wall Street and Organic Pickles

In lower Manhattan and in cities and towns across the country, thousands of people have taken to the streets to demand change. We are the 99%, they are saying, here to put an end to the societal injustices perpetuated by the 1%. Those occupying Wall Street and elsewhere are speaking out against the concentration of corporate power and its negative impact on people and ecosystems, including problems ranging from joblessness and lack of access to health care to loss of biodiversity and accelerating climate change.

Meanwhile, in western Massachusetts, a small crew is hard at work inside a solar-powered food processing facility, peeling and shredding cabbages freshly harvested from an organic farm ten miles away. The cabbage will ferment for several months, and then be sold as raw sauerkraut to stores around the Northeast.

Occupying the streets. Making organic pickles. Any connection here? I would say so.

At first glance, what happens here at Real Pickles appears to be merely ordinary business activity. Just a small enterprise trying to yield a reasonable profit by producing food for people. An observer not so familiar with the workings of contemporary America might be tempted to think it normal, as well, that we source our vegetables from a small organic farm down the road, generate our own power, sell our pickles in raw and fermented form, and only distribute within our own region. But of course, in 2011 here in the United States, there is nothing ordinary at all about such practices. Nor is it typical these days for people to be eating food produced by a small business.

While the representatives of the 99% are seeking to occupy Wall Street, we should probably be thinking of the 1% as the real occupiers. Climate activist Bill McKibben, in a recent address to the demonstrators in NYC, noted: “Wall Street has been occupying the atmosphere. That’s why we can never do anything about global warming. Exxon gets in the way. Goldman Sachs gets in the way.” Indeed, Wall Street has long been occupying many realms of our lives. And our food system is a prime example.

Local food production and distribution by small businesses certainly used to be the norm. But these days, our food system is primarily national and international in scale. It is dominated by huge corporations with massive influence over what we eat and how it is grown, processed, distributed, and sold. These companies have spent significant sums of money to convince us that there is nothing wrong with this picture. Monsanto’s public relations message is that we need them if we are to “feed the world”. Kraft Foods assures us that they’re there for us, “fighting hunger and encouraging healthy lifestyles”.

Increasingly, however, people are starting to see through the slick PR campaigns. They are starting to see connections between the corporate control of our food system and a wide variety of societal problems – the diabetes and obesity epidemics, the huge “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico, and ever-increasing greenhouse gas emissions, just to name a few. Indeed, I think the evidence is robust and convincing enough to say quite clearly: A global, corporate-dominated food system has profoundly negative consequences for people and ecosystems. We are, without a doubt, in need of a new food system.

Here, then, lies the connection between Occupy Wall Street and a business such as Real Pickles. Among the Wall Street protesters, some are more radical than others in their demands for change. But there appears, by and large, to be a unified determination to alter the balance of power in our society away from the corporate elite and in favor of the 99%, and thereby begin to remedy a long list of social and ecological problems.

At Real Pickles, we are doing essentially the same work. Having recognized that a corporate-dominated food system does not serve our society well, we have set about helping to build a new one. Real Pickles is small, people-centered, ecologically-conscious, and local/regional in scale; and puts out food that is authentic and nourishing. The aim is that this business will serve as a model as our new and better food system emerges. Just like those protesting on Wall Street, we also recognize that the problems stemming from corporate control extend far beyond the food system, and hope that our work has impact as part of a broader re-shaping of our society, as well.

Occupy Wall Street and Real Pickles represent different approaches to the same effort. Many approaches are needed, as there is much work to be done and no one simple path to an equitable and sustainable society. So, it is with excitement that we witness the latest social ferment on the streets. Here at Real Pickles we love fermentation! We fully support the Occupy Wall Street protests and are delighted to be engaged together in the work for a better world.

Header photo: David Shankbone

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