story by Kristen Dowd l photo by Sarah Beth
Being eco-friendly as a condo or co-op resident is possible to achieve on your own—but only to a point. You can make energy-efficient lighting decisions, use heating and cooling sparingly, and recycle, but what about the light bulbs in the hallways and lobbies,
Can one imagine an economy in which labor hires capital? Where workers have a legal right to the profits and legal responsibility for the liabilities because they are the owners, where workers jointly manage the firm and themselves in a democratic fashion?
—William Greider, national correspondent for The Nation, in his introduction to The Real World
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Mariposa Co-op grew out of buying clubs that flourished in the 1970s. In the early ’80s, several groups merged, opening a storefront at 4726 Baltimore Avenue. The co-op has come a long way since then: currently 1,000 members strong, Mariposa has outgrown its original space.
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Farmers use community to stay viable
Buying locally often takes a bit more effort than walking into the nearest supermarket. But there are creative people out there making it easier for small farmers to compete for your dollars.
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From the early ’60s through the late ’90s, the Elkins Park business district was an active town center—and Ashbourne Market its de facto town hall. The market eventually occupied a good percentage of the sidewalk-framed storefronts along the main strip, as the owners bought up other businesses to increase space. Technically, it was a grocery
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One of the questions you hear a lot when you work at a food co-op is, “What the heck is a food co-op?” It’s kind of a tricky question. On the one hand, there’s a simple answer: It’s a food store owned by its members for their mutual benefit. Factually correct, but incomplete.
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A Lancaster County Farmers group show how local, organic food makes strong farms and healthy foodby Will DeanLancaster County is full of rolling hills, plowed fields and the occasional tall, silver silo; to the average observer, it can all seem the same. With a closer look, though, one plot of turned soil can be radically
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