Grocery co-op in northern Utah's future?

Start with about 200 people. Add a pinch of intrigue. Stir in a lot of capital. And, maybe in two years, Wasatch Cooperative Market will rise.

Planning began in April for a northern Utah grocery cooperative, which would operate as a for-profit company with owner-members who would receive refunds based on store profits and the amount of food they purchase each year. The cooperative would emphasize organic and local foods. Once opened, it would be the only grocery cooperative in the state in recent years, although Utah has a rich history of cooperative retailers dating back to ZCMI, which began in 1868.

The Wasatch Cooperative organizers are among 20 different groups throughout the United States in the process of forming grocery co-ops. If successful, they would join 325 grocery co-ops in operation nationally that account for nearly $2.1 billion in revenue, provide 15,000 jobs and $252 million in wages and benefits. Since they tend to focus on local and healthful or organic foods, grocery co-ops are a movement gaining popularity in a nation beleaguered with obesity-related health problems. Coupled with health concerns is an increased concern for the environment and estimates that grocery-store food travels an average of 1,500 miles from farm to plate. People who eat locally produced foods are known as "locavores," and locavores are driving the grocery co-op movement.

"The idea is to bring in healthy foods, natural foods, bring in as many local foods as possible and be organic as much as possible," said Alison Einerson, a Wasatch Cooperative steering committee member and executive director of Local First Utah.

Purchasing produce and meat from farms in Utah is more environmentally sustainable than buying food from, say, Washington state or Chile, said steering committee member Ben Gaddis. He is an environmental consultant who was inspired to form a grocery co-op in Salt Lake City after belonging to one in Burlington, Vt.

People who are attracted to grocery co-ops are those who would prefer their money support local farmers than unfamiliar companies outside the state. And the money the farmers receive tends to stay in the community. "Sixty cents on every $1 spent stayed in the state of Vermont," Gaddis said about the grocery co-op in Burlington.

"We really have a keen interest providing markets for local producers that right now cannot produce in large enough quantities for, say, a Smith's or a Whole Foods or something like that," Gaddis said. Some food will have to be shipped from out-of-state, he said, since shoppers prefer produce year-round.