A Cooperative Spirit
Remembering 1972 and 50 years for Davis and Sacramento food co-ops
STORY AND PHOTOS BY Steve Martarano
Davis Food Co-op co-founder Ann M . Evans inside the store . “ Our symbol was a carrot in a clenched fist ,” she says .
Out of two apartments in Davis and Sacramento during the spring of 1972 , the landscape of food shopping in the Capital Region was changed forever .
In the early 1970s , dissatisfaction with chain supermarkets was rippling across California , with many of the more environmentally conscious seeking out options for healthier foods . Rachel Carson ’ s popular “ Silent Spring ,” which detailed how chemical pesticides were harming the environment , was a decade old , having inspired a generation and sparked the modern environmental movement .
With a goal of “ good food at cheap prices in a democratic economic setting ,” UC Davis college graduate student Ann M . Evans held organizational meetings in the apartment at 5th and F streets in Davis she shared with medical student Judith Feldman , hoping to reshape an existing buyers club that purchased items in bulk to keep prices down for its participants .
Under the guidance of rural sociologist and UC Davis lecturer Isao Fujimoto , the group distributed items like carrots , grains and cheese to 40 personally recruited friends within the tight-knit college community . They called themselves the People ’ s Food Conspiracy and insisted that produce be grown without pesticides . “ Our symbol was a carrot in a clenched fist ,” says Evans , who also co-founded the Davis Farmers Market around the same time . That same spring in downtown Sacramento , another buyers group was taking shape in freelance writer William Mueller ’ s N Street apartment , which was located a few blocks from a print shop they used to pick up bulk organic food items .
28 comstocksmag . com | August 2022