Describe a Trump voter who shops at organic food co-ops.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Go.

[Yellowhammer]

Me.

[Del Tachi]

Me.

[Libertas Vel Mors]

Me.

What? Why? Cringe.

[It’s so Joever]

Option 1: Eco-conservative (more common)
There are a couple of these people on Atlas, basically they lean towards a generally more conservative government but do strongly believe in climate change and are concerned about the environment. They buy locally to prevent unnecessary travel and support local businesses, the organic food is also for environmental reasons. They also are likely to be religious (stewards of the Earth idea)

Option 2: My uncle (less common)
He is strangely hippie-like when it comes to food.
Voters like him, who are wary of “big companies”, anti-establishment, and sometimes are drawn towards conspiracies would check this box. I’m pretty sure he refuses to drink pasteurized milk as well for similar reasons. I can see a number of people like him buying organic food from co-ops.

On a less related note, does this have anything to with your new life in North Dakota?

[EastAnglianLefty]

People who live near to a good organic food co-op and prioritise their enjoyment of good food above trying to own the libs. Performatively trying to make every aspect of your life part of the culture war is still a niche pursuit.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

On a less related note, does this have anything to with your new life in North Dakota?

It's not really a "new life" since I'm only here temporarily and previously lived in ND long before I did in Minneapolis.

[Greedo punched first]

A Huntington Beach voter. (Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s have locations there).

[nclib]

I actually know somebody locally who is like this. She also is involved in an affordable housing program. I was very surprised when I found out she voted for Trump (this was 2016).

[VPH]

Read Crunchy Cons for a good rundown of these types. My roommate's mom is definitely in this category.

[Yellowhammer]

Me.

What? Why? Cringe.

Because good food isn’t a political statement, it’s good food.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Mark Zuckerberg

[NOVA Green]

Although it's been a couple decades since I've really followed or been involved in the whole "food-coop scene/movement", this is an interesting question....

So to read the question narrowly and specifically "organic food coops"....

I would say that the intent of the question here to separate "retail" food cooperatives from other types of cooperatives such as farmer dairy cooperatives, and items of such a nature.

Naturally, we need to start with a list of locations of where these coops exist (as opposed to for example the organic or natural food sections of stores such as Whole Foods, HEB, Traders Joes, Kroeger, or even Walmart.

Here is a link that includes roughly some (200) such places across North America, with a nice little map and also allows people on Atlas to find the nearest coop to their location.

https://www.grocer.coop/coops

For sake of clarity I have eliminated coops that are not "food related" even if they are retail, but included small "organic food stores" which are part of the Co-op network although they are not technically "food-coops" (Non-Profit & member owned).

I have also eliminated multiple Food-Coops within the same City, such as PCC which has multiple Food-Coops within Seattle for example, although there are multiple retail locations (Perhaps controversial, but eliminates the chance for duplicate entries.

Here is a map with the number of retail food coops / associates by State, with albeit with some crude painting...



So what does this tell us without going into a detailed breakdown of food-coops by State, nor pulling up items such precinct /City/Township electoral results from 2016?

1.) As we can see Food-Coops are virtually non-existent in virtually all of the States of the "Old Confederacy", not to mention even "Border States" and territories such as OK, WV, DE, MD, etc.....

We can likely rule "Southern" as an adjective to describe Trump Co-Op shoppers.

2.) If we look at New England, we see the vast majority of food-coops within MA located within the "Birkenstock Belt" of Western Mass, and then a one in Cambridge and another in Jamaica Plains (Boston). Similar phenomenons are observed in parts of rural Maine & Vermont, where the "back to the land" movement became a big thing in the '70s and into the '80s....

Most of these places do not appear to be at all particularly "Trump friendly" towns.

3.) If we look at the West Coast, we see the highest concentrations again around places with large and vibrant student movement populations in the '60s, especially around metro areas such as Portland, Seattle, and various College towns up and down the West Coast (Not really seeing tons of Trump voters there, based upon 2016 election results from these various places), Maybe there is a huge chunk of Trump '16 voters shopping at the Coops in Coos Bay & Brookings, Oregon, but seems a bit of a stretch....

4.) Mountain West---- Most of these Food Coops are located in "alternative" rurals, but perhaps one could look at LDS members in Murray and Moab Utah, or possibly Laramie, Wyoming as possibly harboring some Trump '16 voters....

5.) New York State obviously stands out, although even those Food Coops not located within "The City" tend to be concentrated in College Based Cities....

6.) It does appear that Minnesota and Wisconsin have a major disproportionate share of Food-Coops compared to their populations (which kind of makes sense).

7.) Michigan  initially stands out, but at the same time most of these coops are located in places with large "artsy" populations, and although we did observe some significant swings towards the DEM candidate in '88 and towards DJT in some of these places in '16, I'm not convinced the Food-Coop Vote was a major factor.

How to describe a Trump Voter who shops at organic Food Coops?

White, Upper-Midwestern Middle-Age Women in smaller Cities and Towns from a relatively Middle-Class background who wants inexpensive organic local meat (directly from farmers) combined with an interest in "alternative medicine" (dietary suppliments and such), where frequently such items are hard to find elsewhere.

[Former President tack50]

A person I met once was an organic farmer in rural Castille. It would not surprise me if he bought from fellow organic farmers as well.

He was also incredibly conservative (like most people in rural Castille) and from what I can tell often posts pro-Vox stuff on instagram

So whatever the American equivalent to that guy I met is. (say, an organic farmer in rural ND that buys from his fellow organic farmers since he has an interest in the industry)

[NOVA Green]

A person I met once was an organic farmer in rural Castille. It would not surprise me if he bought from fellow organic farmers as well.

So whatever the American equivalent to that guy I met is. (say, an organic farmer in rural ND that buys from his fellow organic farmers since he has an interest in the industry)

I think this is perhaps similar to some folks in the US.

In many Food-Coops within the US, the decision to start selling meat within the stores was highly controversial....

The argument from many members was that if people wanted to buy meat, they could purchase it elsewhere, especially considering that in many co-ops the vast majority of members were vegetarians.

Still, the whole way in which the meat industry and "factory farming of animals" has not only involved immense cruelty and suffering of "animal based protein sources", in addition frequently involves a heavy use of antibiotics, steroids, etc has in many ways helped created a coalition of smaller "meat farmers" looking for local outlets to sell "organic meat" combined with "health foodies" who recognize how the current giant "factory farming, slaughterhouse, and packaging plants" is not only wrong for the workers within the industry, cruel to the animals that suffer in such conditions, is unhealthy to humans to consume, but also harmful to the livelihoods of smaller farmers that can't compete with the $$$ to $$$ on pricing....

I went into a food coop in Iowa City, Iowa sometime in the early '90s (Was a vegetarian at the time), and was amazed at the size of their meat selection....

Although my spouse is a Vegetarian, I now consume meat although I consider it to be a "non-essential" part of my diet, but the concept of buying animal flesh under "more humane" and healthy conditions is something which (even if I were a Trump Voter) would be something that makes sense...

[Hope For A New Era]

My aunt.

More serious answer:

Either a very much "country club Republican," or someone who is just extremely anti-establishment, always, in all ways.

[Badger]

Hardly fits into the coop category, but just a reminder that the owner of Whole Foods is an Ardent tea party advocate

[RussFeingoldWasRobbed]

A bernieorbuster who's voting for Trump to stick it to the #establishment

[Calthrina950]

Ironically enough, Trump's nominee for the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat, Amy Coney Barrett, appears to fall into this category. There was a paparazzi picture taken of her arriving at her house, and she was carrying grocery bags from Whole Foods.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

A higher than average chance of also being an anti-vaxxer.

[Tartarus Sauce]

This triggered memories of that time like two or three years ago when the New York Times got chewed out for doing a piece on some Nazi and the theme of the story could basically be summed up as "look at this friendly neighborhood Nazi shopping at Whole Foods! He's just like you!"

[Indy Texas]

Just FYI, Whole Foods isn't a co-op. Not every store that sells organic food or caters to a liberal/cosmopolitan market segment is a co-op.

A grocery co-op is "owned" by its members and in order to shop there, you have to also work there a certain number of hours/days per month.

[Kamala's side hoe]

Just FYI, Whole Foods isn't a co-op. Not every store that sells organic food or caters to a liberal/cosmopolitan market segment is a co-op.

A grocery co-op is "owned" by its members and in order to shop there, you have to also work there a certain number of hours/days per month.

[H. Ross Peron]

Most likely an evangelical Christian or Mormon who is into healthy eating. They are fairly common (even outright vegetarians) on social media in my experience.

[Calthrina950]

Ironically enough, Trump's nominee for the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat, Amy Coney Barrett, appears to fall into this category. There was a paparazzi picture taken of her arriving at her house, and she was carrying grocery bags from Whole Foods.

I probably should have qualified this. I saw that Whole Foods was mentioned on here, and so this post was meant as a follow-up to that.