In Minnesota, and especially within the Twin Cities, it is easy to take our vast constellation of food co-ops for granted. The Cooperative Grocers network lists more than 50 in our state, with more than a dozen in the metro area. That not only leads the nation, it’s more than twice as many as you’ll find in all of California—a state with a progressive reputation, twice our landmass, and six times our population. (Wisconsin, Washington, and New York round out the top four states with the most co-ops, where more than one-third of the nation’s co-ops can be found.) Minnesota has more cooperatives than the bottom 25 states combined.

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