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Description
Cooperative Development Services (CDS) is one of the nation's best known sources of expertise and information for existing food co-ops. It was a natural step for CDS to become a partner in the FoodCoop500 initiative, which seeks to raise the number of food co-ops in the United States from 300 to 500 by 2015 (visit: www.foodcoop500.coop). The other partners are NCB (formerly National Cooperative Bank)/NCB Capital Impact and the National Cooperative Grocers Association, which recently pledged $200,000 to support the project for the next two years.
Recently, CDS reaffirmed its longstanding commitment to producer coops, as well as consumer co-ops, with a new initiative. "We will work with producers of natural and organic products for a sustainable world," said CDS Director Kevin Edberg. "As with our renewable energy work [profiled in the July-Aug. 2006 issue of Rural Cooperatives] we will leverage our contacts to help producers find relationships with food retailers that support their entry to the market."
One example of this work is with PastureLand, a small organic dairy co-op that makes cheese and butter from cows that graze on carefully managed grasslands in southeastern Minnesota. In 2006, the co-op's butter won its third consecutive award at the American Cheese Society Competition and Judging.
PastureLand General Manager Jean Andreasen worked at Mississippi Market food co-op in St. Paul, Minn., for more than a decade, providing her a good look at the work CDS does with consumer-owned retail stores. "They helped Mississippi... |
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