World Hunger

Non-profit food cooperatives are increasingly endangered by the marketing of "natural" foods by large corporations, two representatives of the New England Food Cooperatives Organization NEFCO) said yesterday.

Speaking before a small crowd at a forum on the economics of hunger, Jon Rosenthal, a NEFCO spokesman, said the group is one linking a "world-wide system of producers' and consumers' co-ops that supplies food for people rather than for profit."

This system is threatened by the competition of large firms and supermarkets that now offer cheaper versions of the same types of food the co-ops offer, Rosenthal said.

NEFCO representative Rink Dickinson said his organization "has been able to make links with small local farmers," providing better produce more cheaply. But because large corporations own all stages of production, they can "sell food at a loss to drive out the competition," Rosenthal said. Food co-ops "must compete with the corporations while maintaining a humane food system," Rosenthal said.

The Science Center panel discussion, organized by John S. Lindsay '82, included talks by three other representatives of food-related organizations.

Susan Redlich of the Massachusetts Department of Food and Agriculture agreed with Rosenthal and Dickinson that "a plan of regional self-reliance in agriculture is both reasonable and viable." The trend towards large, corporate-owned farms stems from "tax breaks that give disproportionate benefits to large farms, even though medium to small farms are more efficient," Redlich said