Arizmendi Association of Cooperatives

From the LA Times walking tour report, "Foodie paradise in Berkeley:"

"Food makes sense to everyone," says "epicurean concierge" Lisa Rogovin, "even if you're not a foodie."

It makes more sense after spending three hours with her in January as she led a walking tour of Berkeley's Gourmet Ghetto, the place where the California food movement got its start. Some may argue that Berkeley is also the end-all of the movement, but it's certainly not the be-all.

TIME Magazine, in its coverage of Cleveland's Evergreen Cooperative Group mentions our Association and it inspiration from the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation of Spain. 

CBS visited and interviewed Arizmendi worker/owner Jabari Jones about the San Pablo store's participation in the EcoMetro guide.  Click on the image to see the video at the CBS site.

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Amanda Cook, a student researcher at U.C. Berkeley, was a participant observer in one of our member workplaces recently, to explore whether workplace democracy can positively influence self-perception and perceptions of others.  She concludes 

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Uli Bilke, a researcher from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences spent time interviewing Arizmendi bakers recently in order to see if in our workplaces were utopian.  What is utopia?  A place in which

the interests of the individuals are congruent with the interests of the group; and personal growth and freedom entail responsibility for others. Underlying the vision of utopia is the assumption that harmony, cooperation, and mutuality of interests are natural to human existence rather than conflict, competition, and exploitation.

He concludes that we are a step in the right direction.  The worker cooperative

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