This ambitious documentary from filmmaker Steve Alves traces the history of food cooperatives in the United States, from the 19th century to the present day, noting how their popularity has waxed and waned along with shifts in the political climate. Widely prevalent during the Depression, food co-ops were assailed in later decades as socialist enterprises that didn't pay their fair share of taxes. Co-ops were again popular in the 1960s and '70s but lost traction until recent years, as the fallout of economic recession has led to a resurgence, with dozens of new ventures opening and hundreds more being developed. Alves zeroes in on the travails of his hometown store in Massachusetts, but historic and contemporary footage, expert interviews, and archival stills offer a broader context for his comments, which position the co-op movement within a frame of democratic values that are being expressed through an economic enterprise. DVD extras on a second disc include a series of bonus films (among them an encapsulation of the situation in Minnesota, which has more food co-ops than any other state, and another on how Alves's community fought off Walmart), and historical filmstrips, such as “Citizen Dave Douglas,” a 1954 screed that huffily insists that co-ops pay “their share of taxes” like other U.S. businesses—a charge that seems ridiculous today in the wake of Wall Street skullduggery and off-shore tax havens. A fine documentary on a timely subject, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Gardner)
Food for Change
(2014) 2 discs. 84 min. DVD: $295. Home Planet Pictures (<a href="http://www.foodforchange.coop/">www.foodforchange.coop</a>). PPR. Closed captioned. April 6, 2015
Food for Change
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