The Park Slope Food Coop has a long and proud history of putting our values into practice through participating in a variety of consumer boycott campaigns, some local and some international, some regarding specific companies and others addressing entire countries.
Since our founding, the Coop has been a leader in using our buying power as an advocacy tool. Some notable examples include:
- 1973: Began participating in the boycott against South Africa to end Apartheid more than a decade before the cause gained popularity in the U.S.
- 1980s and ’90s: Joined the boycott in support of the United Farm Workers.
- 2000s to present: The membership regularly votes overwhelmingly to continue boycotting products by Coca-Cola and all its subsidiaries, such as Odwalla.
- Late 2000s: Bans on bottled water and plastic shopping bags are years ahead of mainstream acceptance.
- 2010: Becomes the first grocery store in Park Slope to boycott Brooklyn-based Flaum Appetizing for union-busting and workers’ rights violations.
Our mission statement makes plain our commitment to participating in boycotts and product bans to advance our values:
- “We seek to avoid products that depend on the exploitation of others.”
- “We strive to be a responsible and ethical…neighbor.”
- “We respect the environment.”
- “We oppose discrimination in any form.”
Our Membership Manual affirms the commitment to social justice and self-determination inherent to the cooperative movement:
Cooperatives are based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity. In the tradition of their founders, cooperative members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others. (PSFC Membership Manual, p. 8 )
The personal and economic benefits we enjoy as Coop members are the fruits of these values.
PSFC BDS 