From Salkım Cooperative to Public: ‘We Are Not Desperate Against Food Monopoly’

We talked to the member of Salkım Cooperative Burak Yücel about two months ago in the Kozyatağı District of Istanbul about the story of the cooperative which aims to deliver healthy and safe food to public against industrial food monopolies.

Could you briefly tell us about the foundation story of Salkım cooperative? Where and when has it been founded? Why was the name chosen as Salkım (bunch)?

The idea of ​​establishing a cooperative has been an issue we have been discussing for the past six months. As citizens who come together under the name “We Are Not Desperate Councils”, we believe that the real democratization of our country in every field can only be achieved through the neighborhood councils that citizens will create in their neighborhoods. We Are Not Desperate Councils, which is a platform of democratic citizens, carries out activities in many areas ranging from education to health, ecology to women’s freedom. The idea of ​​the cooperative has been emerged by these discussions and studies. We’ve decided to establish Salkım Cooperative in order to ensure the public’s access to healthy and safe food against the dominance of industrial food monopolies without intermediaries, to be in solidarity with small producers and to contribute to the maintenance of clean agriculture. We liked Salkım (bunch) as a name. Bunch makes sense, coming out as a single branch but then multiplying with tens and hundreds of branches. With the concept of cooperative, the name sounded very sincere and warm to us. That’s why we chose this name.

How do you situate outside the industrial profit-oriented food system and how do you ensure your sustainability?

We live in a large city with a population of about twenty million (official figure is sixteen million). One of the most urgent needs of people in this city is to be healthy. To see what effects the industrial food regime has on human health, it is enough to look at the cancer rates. Even though we can reach a limited number of people today, what we find meaningful is to deliver healthy and safe food to people. While this is not our only mission, of course, the retail societies fully meet this need. There are thousands of producers who do clean agriculture in many parts of the country but are left out of the monopolistic chain and their chances of living are decreasing day by day. Retail societies are important bridges at reaching people for our producer friends. There are many more friendly cooperatives like us.
We are just at the beginning of this process. So we need some time to get involved in the production phase. That is why the presence as a retail society at the moment corresponds to our reality today. We do not have a purpose to make a profit, or to expand private property with the obtained profit. Because this would be a completely opposite of the idea of ​​a cooperative. Our goal is to obtain the minimum income necessary for our cooperative to survive. We also have a principle to share some of the profit we make with women, children, victims of war and immigration, and subjects struggling for ecology. We ensure our sustainability with volunteering and solidarity. We all strive to create a collective labor process for Salkım cooperative. If this does not happen, we think that the cooperative cannot survive even for a day.

For which problems in the industrial food system does the cooperative seek solutions?

About a hundred and fifty years ago, the great thinker Karl Marx said, “Capitalism will cut down the tree if it can’t sell its shadow.” The same statement also applies to industrial food monopolies. The purpose of the industrial food system is to make profit, and for that, everything is permissible, including destroying human health. Genetically modified organisms, pesticides, chemical additives, chemical fertilizers; the industrial food system lies at the source of all these facts. The aim of both producer cooperatives and retail societies is to produce alternatives to these phenomena caused by them. We place it as a prerequisite for our producers to manufacture without using any chemical additives. We try to find natural protection methods instead of chemical drugs. We make sure that the production process is transparent and traceable. We put many products we supply to laboratory tests. We prefer referenced manufacturers and products. We are struggling for the health of consumers within all the means available.

How do you choose the products in your cooperative? How do you determine the producers? What are the difficulties you encounter while bringing them together with consumers?

There are many difficulties we face while bringing the products together with the consumers. The first is that there are only a few manufacturers in our country that produce clean and natural products. Therefore, although we have a wide range of products, clean and healthy products can only be produced in limited quantities. This is the most important handicap.

The second major difficulty is experienced in shipping and transportation of the products to Istanbul. Unfortunately, this is an incredible burden on product costs. This is one of the primary problems we need to solve. This is one of the main agendas of not only us as Salkım Cooperative but also of our friends’ from all other cooperatives.

How do you consider the situation of retail societies in our country?

There are promising developments recently in this sense. Although not enough, there is an awareness and an increase in the number of cooperatives. Of course, there is a long way ahead of us. There is a lot to do. However, despite all the inadequacies, it is important for us that the society has been developing a critical sensitivity regarding the necessity of becoming a cooperative.

What had been said about food production and consumption relations in the cooperative seminar organized by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Food Department?

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB) is taking various steps to reveal an alternative food regime in Istanbul. This is how their views were expressed to us. The essence of the alternative food regime is to ensure people of Istanbul to access healthy and safe food without intermediaries by bringing production cooperatives producing all over the country and retail socities together in Istanbul. In addition, to promote agricultural production through cooperatives in areas in the immediate vicinity of Istanbul such as Silivri and Çatalca.

Undoubtedly, this project put forward by IBB is very comprehensive and challenging. We hope that the possibilities at hand will be sufficient to realize such a project. Because as we said before, it is not an easy task to establish a new food regime in a city of twenty million. But at the same time, it has been positive that such a road was taken.