There’s a deep multi-cultural history of integrating social and economic co-operation with agricultural systems via a pattern widely referred to as “mutual aid”. Some examples of historical mutual aid societies which explicitly help farmers include The Grange, Via Campesina, Italian farming co-ops, and Cherokee Gadugi.
Zev Friedman will share about his co-operative experience living at Earthaven Ecovillage and founding/participating in many co-op organizations, the intensive research he’s been engaged in for the last 4 years around mutual aid history, and the progress made so far to establish Co-operate WNC, a regional mutual aid organization. We’ll emphasize how to apply lessons from Mondragon and other co-operative endeavors to our own region in practical ways and give you clues to begin mutual aid in your own life and community as well as get engaged in Co-operate WNC. In part 3, Pat continues describing details of the Mondragon economic model.
This is a fascinating discussion, but I beg to differ with Pat about why there is so much success at Madrigal. I think that it has more to do with their shared history and sense of affiliation with each other. Many, if not all religions, promote the actuation of belief as part of being a true believer. Ask any Muslim, Buddhist, etc. It is not an exclusive principle of christianity. But look at the moshavs and kibbutzim in Israel. There are Russian Jews alongside Ethiopian Jews but there is this underlying sense of unity in spite of centuries of differences. In my opinion, these types of cooperatives succeed because of a unifying identity of the participants in opposition to the rest of the world. Again, in my opinion, once success and security are established, there is the ability and desire to diversify because people are free to step back in their comfort and recognize the power and value in diversity.