In the middle of an economic crisis, in the shadow of Wall Street, an institution that represents a less well-known American tradition is booming. Founded in 1973, the Park Slope Food Coop is a cooperative supermarket where all 16,000 members work 3 hours per month to earn the right to buy the best food in Brooklyn at incredibly low prices. With a healthy dose of insight and wit, FOOD COOP takes the viewer into the belly of one of the most successfully implemented socialist experiences in the United States.
Working against everything that defines the capitalistic indulgence of the “American Way of Life,” this resilient coop has curiously inspired as much hatred as enthusiasm. FOOD COOP relates how Park Slope Food Coop has come to life over the decades, and how this institution’s mode of participation teaches democracy and demonstrates a tangible example of social change.
Tom Boothe is an American director based in Paris since 2002. Has worked as a wine buyer, sommelier, winery lab technician and wine educator, and is the cofounder of Coopérative La Louve, a coop food market that opened in 2017 in Paris.
(Image courtesy of the French Ministry of Agriculture.)
