By: Micky Ellenbecker, Purchasing Assistant
If you haven’t already seen this news proudly plastered all over this Reader issue and all over the stores, Willy Street Co-op is celebrating its 50th Anniversary year starting this month!!! That’s right, 50 years! (And I thought I was getting old.) It takes a lot of teamwork, compromise and patience to operate as a cooperative, but it also fosters community and inclusion. So, in honor of our co-op business model, we want to recognize our fellow local co-op vendors and brands we sell that are committed to the shared responsibilities and democratic control that is the foundation of a cooperative business. We appreciate them navigating these waters alongside us and for the greater community. Hats off to you all!
Maple Valley Cooperative
Maple Valley was originally founded almost 30 years ago by three friends in the Driftless region, but shifted its business structure to a co-op model in 2007. Its mission is “to produce and market the finest organic maple products with fair and sustainable methods while respecting our farmers, customers, vendors, employees, the land, and our communities.” Maple Valley now has more than 30 farmer members tapping trees in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Yor,k and Vermont. These are family farms, most of which are multi-generational and many that span for several generations where they’ve passed along the craft of maple sugaring from one generation to the next. Farmers who join the cooperative are required to be sustainable farming stewards, ensuring their maple woodland understory stays intact to provide habitat for abundant and diverse wildlife and to prevent soil erosion. They must also minimally tap their trees so they stay healthy and may produce for up to 200 years. That’s a lot of carbon sequestration for the good of the planet and the people! And, in return for their dedication to quality and stewardship, the co-op offers the farmers a sustainable living wage.
Organic Valley
It all started in 1988 when a handful of Midwest family farmers in the Driftless region were fed up with the state of American agriculture. They were discarded by a bankrupt agricultural system and were told to “get big, or get out!” because industrial, chemical farming was the only existing option for survival. But they didn’t want to be industrial, chemical farmers, and they didn’t want to be at the mercy of corporate agriculture. So one farmer, George Siemon, put up posters calling local farmers to band together. And they did. Family farmers filled the county courthouse and they all agreed there had to be a better way—a more sustainable way—to continue farming like they always had, in a way that protects the land, animals, economy and people’s health. And that’s how their farmer-owned cooperative was born.
Organic Valley is now made up of over 1,600 family farms and more than 900 employees, all pooling their passion and resources to bring organic food to the tables of people across the country.
Their farmers share the costs of getting their products to market, and they share the profits when the company does well. But along with everyone who works there, they share a vision of a healthier, more sustainable food system. Everything they do is a collaboration toward that goal.
Just Coffee Cooperative
Just Coffee Cooperative is a worker-owned, Fair Trade, and organic coffee roasting cooperative in Madison, Wisconsin, dedicated to a model of commerce based on transparency, respect for labor, and environmental sustainability. The Just Coffee founders were prompted to begin roasting in 2001 by Zapatista coffee growers in Chiapas, Mexico who were producing high-quality, organic beans on small, ecologically integrated family plots but finding no buyers. As an act of solidarity, these founders pledged to purchase their coffee and sell it. They now work with more than 15 grower cooperatives around the world, importing their beans mostly through their importing cooperative, Cooperative Coffees, whose online published contracts permit consumers to verify the price paid to the farmer.
Wisconsin Meadows
Founded in 2008 on the rolling meadows of Wisconsin, their cooperative began as a small community of farmers committed to changing the way beef was produced and consumed. Their story is one of regeneration—of the land, their communities, and the health of their families. Through collaboration and a shared vision, they’ve grown, but their core mission remains unchanged: to produce the highest quality, grass-fed and finished beef while nurturing the soil and waterways that sustain our way of life. Every steak, every roast, tells the story of their dedication to a healthier planet and the promise of a sustainable future for the next generation of farmers. Now more than 230 family farmers take pride in being owner-members of the Wisconsin Grass-fed Beef Cooperative.
Wisconsin Growers Cooperative
Wisconsin Growers Cooperative was founded in 2006 to help roughly 30 farming families maintain ownership of their farms and market their produce. All of the farmers are Amish at this time and are located in west/central Wisconsin near the towns of Black River Falls, Mondovi, and Taylor. Some farmers have only a small garden plot, while others have several acres of produce, and every piece of produce is grown with the help of good old-fashioned horsepower. No tractors here! Labor is traded on the farms if someone needs help with just about anything such as weeding, planting, and harvesting. Farmers/growers take turns on the growers board (a three-person board of directors) helping to manage everything from planning what type of produce each grower will grow, to making sure the produce truck gets loaded on time as well as assisting the sales manager as needed. Its members are dedicated to the idea that if farmers take “good care of the soil, the soil will pay back with high-quality produce.” And non-Amish father and daughter team, Al and Kayley Weinrich, serve as the coordination team for this all-Amish cooperative in order to bridge the communication and transportation gap between the growers and customers.
Westby Cooperative Creamery
Since 1903, the Westby Cooperative Creamery has been dedicated to producing high-quality cultured and hard cheese dairy products under the same principle since day one—small production batches and top-quality milk make for a great product. The co-op is farmer-owned, meaning that more than 175 farmers and their families who supply milk daily to the creamery, own the business. Their farmer-owners share a philosophy in ensuring the best welfare to their animals with rBST-free milk; no hormones are injected into the cow to make them produce more milk. Delivering sustainable dairy products is their priority. They conserve natural resources, renew energy, and responsibly manage waste. And they keep their cows comfortable and their needs urgent.
Silver & Lewis Cheese Factory Cooperative
The small factory located in Monticello, Wisconsin has been operating since 1897 and is known for its Farmer, Brick, and Muenster cheeses. They are the second longest continuously running co-op in the entire state of Wisconsin at a whopping 127 years. Their co-op is much smaller and operates a little differently than others. The building and land is owned by the 20+ dairy farmers that supply the milk, and Josh (Head Cheesemaker) and Clara Erickson own the cheesemaking equipment within the factory and marketing segment of the factory.
Chalet Cheese Cooperative
Founded in 1885 by five dairy farmers, Chalet Cheese Cooperative continues to flourish as one of the United States oldest cheese cooperatives. Their cheese-making facility is owned by their dairy farm members (patrons) who are the suppliers of the milk to the facility. All their patrons are located in Green County, Wisconsin, close to the factory and provided fresh milk daily to the cheese factory. Chalet Cheese is known for producing unique flavored cheeses through an artisanal approach, accomplished cheesemaking knowledge, and a Swiss cheesemaking heritage. They specialize in producing Baby Swiss, Limburger, Wisconsin Brick, Swiss, and smoked versions of these cheeses. They are proud to say they are the only producer of Limburger in the United States. You’ll recognize their brands as Country Castle & Deppler on our shelves.
