Resources -- Valuable information for healthy living

National Cooperative Grocers Association (NCGA) Go Co-op!This umbrella organization of food co-ops nationwide provides vision, leadership and resources to support the autonomous co-ops like us in developing our position in the natural foods industry. This video covers a recent Co-ops Rock! fundraising concert in Seattle to help mid-western farmers hit hard by flooding this spring. Their website: www.ncga.coop

Organic Consumers Association
This consumers group supports campaigns for Health, Justice, Peace, Sustainability, and Democracy; with updates on Organics, Health Issues, Genetic Engineering, Food Safety, Fair Trade/ Social Justice and Farm Issues. www.organicconsumers.org

Provender Alliance
Conducts outreach and education for natural products in the Northwest, publishes the Provender Journal, and holds an annual conference which we typically attend. www.provender.org

Tilth Producers
Provides support to organic, sustainable farming through education, networking and research opportunities at a statewide level. www.tilthproducers.org

Feasting in the Skagit Foodshed
Local blogger offers valuable resources for local restaurants, producers and suppliers in Skagit County www.skagitfoodshed.wordpress.com

Slow Food Skagit River Salish Sea Convivium
Slow Food is an educational organization that supports sustainable agriculture, local food production, heritage foods and the pleasures of the table. www.slowfoodskagit.org

Cooperative Grocers Information Network (CGIN)Strengthens retail food cooperatives via collaboration and sharing of resources. www.cgin.coop

National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA) helps provide legal and policy advocacy for cooperative business practices at a federal level, and also provides networking resources for common business needs. www.ncba.org

National Nutritional Foods Association (NNFA)Publishes useful information about natural food issues, trends, practices, and changing policies that affect the industry. www.nnfa.org
Co-ops ROCK! Social movements tend to swoop and soar—like living, breathing, flying things that are far more bat more than bird—diving at the neck, biting, never letting go. Sometimes they come to us with their own sense of morality. Their own sense of justice. At other times they come to us as an abstraction, making no sense at all. They ponder things. They sit and squirm at the same time. And just when you think you can ignore them, you feel the jaw at the jugular, and all you can do is bleed.

There is a need to bleed. When you bleed for something—when you pour everything you have and everything you are into a cause that is bigger than yourself—you create a life that makes a difference. The cooperative movment is a socio-economic philosophy that makes a difference too. Cooperatives are as relevant and revolutionary today as they were when they were first envisioned more than 150 years ago. And perhaps now more than ever, the cooperative movement needs young people to get involved and help keep the revolution alive.
http://coopsrock.coop/