Co-operatives at the Co-op

Cooperatives are an important business model for our local economy and play an equally important part globally. Check out the following cooperatives that are featured for sale at the Brattleboro Food Co-op:

  • Alaffia Beauty Products / Hair and Skin Care Products
    • Plant-Based Skin & Hair Care Products. GMP Certified. Minority-Owned. Cruelty-Free. Fair-Trade Beauty. ECO Certified. Esquire Award Winner. NMSDC Member. Empowerment Projects. Allure Award Winner. MBE Certified. Types: Body Wash, Hand Soap.
  • Alvarado Street Bread & Bagels / Baked Goods
    • Worker-owned bakery located in Petaluma, California that produces certified organic whole-grain breads and bagels. Alvarado was featured in the 2009 Michael Moore documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story.
  • Artisan Beverage Cooperative / Kombucha
    • The Cooperative’s mission is to produce the highest quality beverages possible taking into account the social and economic impacts of all decisions of the cooperative and to demonstrate, through our success, the viability of worker cooperatives and fairly traded goods.
  • Aura Cacia  / Purchasing Co-op (Frontier Co-op) / Essential Oils
    • As part of Frontier Co-op, Aura Cacia shares the co-op’s values of nourishing people and the planet. They care for the small grower communities at the source of our products, openly share product information, show their customers how to improve their lives with aromatherapy, and give back to help those in need. Aura Cacia is committed to both quality of life and quality products offering outstanding products made from simple and pure botanical ingredients that improve the well-being of those who use them. They test every shipment of essential oil they receive to verify its purity and quality.
  • Blue Diamond Growers / Almonds
    • Blue Diamond Growers is a California agricultural cooperative and marketing organization that specializes in almonds. Founded in 1910 as the California Almond Grower’s Exchange, the organization claims to be the world’s largest tree nut processing and marketing company.
  • Cabot Creamery / Butter (Salted, Unsalted), Cheese: American, Cheddar (Mild, Sharp, Extra Sharp, Seriously Sharp), Jack (Colby, Monterey, Pepper), Mozzarella, Muenster, Private Stock, Swiss, Specialty Cheese: Artisan: Private Stock, Cabot Clothbound (with Cellars at Jasper Hill), Cottage Cheese; Sour Cream; Whipped Cream, Yogurt (Greek Style, Non-fat)
    • The Cabot Creamery Co-operative is an American dairy agricultural marketing cooperative, which is owned by more than 800 local dairy farmers in New England and upstate New York, and Agri-Mark Family Dairy Farms, Incorporated.
  • Deep Root Organic Co-op  / Farmer Co-op:
    • Produce (Organic): Beans (Green), Beets (Red, Specialty), Broccoli, Cabbage (Green, Red), Carrots, Chard (Green, Red), Collards, Corn, Cucumbers, Fennel, Kale (Green, Red, Purple, Lacinato), Leeks, Lettuce (Greenleaf, Red, Romaine), Onions, Peppers, Parsnips, Potatoes (Red, White, Yukon), Rutabega, Summer Squash, Winter Squash (14 Varieties), Tomatoes, Turnips, Zucchini, etc.
  • Equal Exchange / Coffee and Chocolates (Fairly Traded, Organic), Bananas
    • Equal Exchange is a for-profit Fairtrade worker-owned, cooperative headquartered in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Equal Exchange distributes organic, gourmet coffee, tea, sugar, bananas, avocados, cocoa, and chocolate bars produced by farmer cooperatives in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
  • Florida’s Natural / Orange, grapefruit, and other flavors of juices.
    • Florida’s Natural Growers is an agricultural cooperative based in Lake Wales, Florida. It is currently owned by over 1,100 grower members. It was the only national orange juice maker that uses only US-grown fruit in its products.
  • Fromages Ermitage (France)  / Cheese
    • Cheese: Brie, Carré de l’Est, Comté, Elsässer, Emmental, Fondu au Racly et aux morilles, From’Chaud, Langres, Lingot d’Or, Lomont, Marcaire, Mont d’Or, Munster, Plus de Saveur, Raclette, Racly, Roussot, Royal Crémeux, Tartiflette
  • Frontier Co-op / Herbs & Spices; Teas (Including Fairly Traded, Organic)
    • Frontier Co-op is a cooperatively owned American wholesaler of natural and organic products, founded in 1976 and based in Norway, Iowa, US. It sells products under the Frontier Co-op, Simply Organic and Aura Cacia brands.
  • Kerrygold / Irish Butter, Cheese
  • Land of Lakes Dairy / Dairy products: Butter and Cheese
    • American member-owned agricultural cooperative focusing on the dairy industry. The cooperative has 1,959 direct producer-members, 751 member-cooperatives, and about 10,000 employees who process and distribute products for about 300,000 agricultural producers, handling 12 billion pounds of milk annually. It is ranked third on the National Cooperative Bank Co-op 100 list of mutuals and cooperatives. The co-op is one of the largest producers of butter and cheese in the United States through its dairy foods business; serves producers, animal owners, and their families through more than 4,700 local cooperatives, independent dealers, and other large retailers through its Purina Animal Nutrition (Purina Mills) business.
  • La Riojana / Wine and Olive Oil
    • Riojana is located in the beautiful Famatina Valley, deep in the heart of La Rioja province with a family of 500 growers, La Riojana is Argentina’s largest wine co-operative and is one of the country’s top 10 wine exporters, producing a wide variety of award-winning Fairtrade and Organic wines for markets all over the world.
    • La Riojana also produces a range of Fairtrade and Fairtrade organic extra virgin olive oil. These come from selected olives grown in the Antinaco Valleys – Los Colorados in La Rioja province, one of the most important olive-producing regions in South America.
  • Mt. Sterling Co-op Creamery / Farmer Co-op: Goat Cheeses, butter.
    • Mt. Sterling Co-op Creamery, founded in 1976 when a group of Wisconsin farmers got together to make raw cheese from their goats’ milk. Goat’s milk and goat’s milk cheese was solidly outside the mainstream at the time, but the Co-op slowly built a following for their product and now, more than thirty years later, has grown to twenty member farmers and distributes the Mt. Sterling brand of award-winning raw goat cheeses to food co-ops and grocery stores across the country.
  • Neighboring Food Co-op Association / Northeast Grown Frozen Fruits and Vegetables: Blueberries, Broccoli (Organic), Edamame (Organic), Green Beans (Organic), Sweet Corn (non-GMO), Green Peas (non-GMO)
    • The Neighboring Food Co-op Association (NFCA) includes over 30 food co-ops and start-up initiatives in New England that are working together toward a shared vision of a thriving regional economy, rooted in a healthy, just and sustainable food system and a vibrant community of co-operative enterprise.
  • Ocean Spray  / Farmer Co-op: Fresh Cranberries, Citrus, Grapefruit, Cranberry Juice
    • Started by three farmers who had a love for cranberries, our farmer-owned cooperative is now 700 families strong. We’re proud to deliver 100% of profits from our farmer-owners’ fruit back to them.
  • Organic Prairie /  Farmer Co-op: Meat: Beef, Chicken, Pork, Turkey
      • Organic Prairie is an independent cooperative of organic family farms and true pioneers of organic meat production. We began producing our delicious meats—without the use of antibiotics, synthetic hormones, or pesticides—back in 1996.
  • Organic Valley Dairy / Dairy Products and Eggs
    • Organic Valley (OV) is an organic food brand and independent cooperative of organic farmers and is the nation’s largest farmer-owned organic cooperative and one of the world’s largest organic consumer brands. Organic Valley markets products such as milk, cheese, eggs, soy, protein shakes, butter, yogurt, organic snack items, and more. Under the Organic Prairie brand, the cooperative markets organic beef, pork, chicken, and turkey products.
  • Rabble-Rouser / Worker Co-op: Granola, Chocolates, Confections (formerly Nutty Stephs )
    • As a 100% worker-owned company, Rabble-Rouser believes that every worker, who is dedicated to their job working, should have the right to claim ownership and share in the profits of their labor. Through their shared hard work RR hopes to create a new culture of business, leisure, diversity, receptivity, and humanity.
  • Real Pickles / Fermented Foods
    • Real Pickles is a worker-owned co-operative producing raw ferments from Northeast grown organic vegetables. We are committed to promoting human and ecological health by providing people with delicious, nourishing food and by working toward a regional, organic food system. We aim to produce the highest quality, traditional pickled foods available, using natural fermentation. We buy our vegetables only from Northeast family farms and sell our products only within the Northeast. Our ingredients are 100% organic.
  • Sun-Maid Raisins / Farmer Co-op: Dried Fruit: Raisins, Prunes, Apricots, Cranberries, Apples, Dates, Tropical Fruits, Figs
    • As a farmers’ cooperative, Sun-Maid is privately owned by 750 families who farm 50,000 acres of raisin grapes in central California. This unique growing area—featuring long, dry summers optimal for grape production and natural sun-drying of grapes into raisins—has been the heart of the raisin industry since early settlers immigrated to California after the Gold Rush in the 1800s.
  • Tine SA / Farmer Co-op
    • Cheese: Jarlsberg (Original, Lite, Special Reserve, Smoked), Ski Queen Gjetost, Ekte Geitost (100% Goat Cheese), Ridder, Snøfrisk
  • Welch’s / Grape juice, jams, and jellies
    • Welch Foods Inc. has been owned by the National Grape Cooperative Association, a co-op of grape growers, since 1956. Welch’s is particularly known for its grape juices, jams, and jellies made from dark Concord grapes and its white Niagara grape juice. The company also manufactures and markets an array of other products, including refrigerated juices, frozen and shelf-stable concentrates, organic grape juice, and dried fruit. Welch’s has also licensed its name for a line of grape-flavored soft drinks since 1974. Other popular products that use Welch’s name are the fruit snacks made by The Promotion In Motion Companies, Inc.

This list is updated each year as we celebrate “October is National Co-op Month”; a time we promote and celebrate local, national, and international co-ops at the Brattleboro Food Co-op.

“National Co-op Month is an annual opportunity to raise awareness of a trusted, proven way to do business and build communities. Under the 2021 theme “Build Back for Impact,” it is also a chance to leverage our shared cooperative identity in the face of some of the biggest challenges we face: a global pandemic, climate emergency, and systemic racism. As we build back an economy that works for everyone, our biggest impact comes from embracing the values and principles that make us truly unique.” —coopmonth.coop

This is an annual opportunity to identify the co-operatives you may already be supporting while shopping at your community-owned co-op, The Brattleboro Food Co-op (Learn more about the Brattleboro Food Co-op).

updated September 2021