Food Shed Co-op Needs Us:  We Need Food Shed Co-op

Author: Donovan C. Wilkin, Food Shed Co-op owner # 13

Feb 2021, The US spends twice as much as the average OECD nation (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) on health care, yet we rank last in life expectancy and have the most chronic diseases and obesity.

The three most common causes of death today are diet-related: heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimers. One in six Americans suffers from an auto-immune disorder. 

Food allergies, ADHD, and autism spectrum disorders are increasingly common in children.  Diet (not vaccination) is the more likely cause. 54% of children today have a chronic disease. Brain cancer is the number one disease causing death of children under age 15.

While part of the problem is certainly poor food choices, too much salt, sugar, fat, highly processed foods and too few whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, even those who try to eat responsibly are getting food of poor quality. Since the 1950s, the vitamin, mineral, and trace element content of conventionally farmed foods has dropped dramatically. It is estimated that to get the same trace element nutrition contained in a 1950 orange, you would have to eat four to eight oranges today. Taste has declined in parallel with nutrition. Conventionally farmed soils have lost 50 to 80 percent of soil organic matter, the essential medium for growing nutrient-dense, healthy produce. 

Many local organic and regenerative farmers are now purposefully farming organic matter back into their soils. Healthy produce like theirs is going to be featured at the Food Shed Co-op, a customer-owned local cooperative grocery located between Woodstock and Crystal Lake Illinois on US Highway 14.   

But it won’t open until the Co-op has 1,200 owners signed up (see current owner count at top of this page). Anyone can shop, but member-owners will receive patronage dividends based on their purchases and will have a big say in what we sell and what services we offer. 

Three responses to those who think that healthy food is too expensive:

1. it’s cheaper than paying the doctor;
2. the taste is worth the cost; and,
3. the more of it we buy, the cheaper it becomes. 

Become an Owner by clicking on the big buttons at the top/bottom of this page.  Easy payment plan is available.

Above image (inspiring us to visualize OUR Co-op) complements of Green Top Grocery / Bloomington, Illinois