Bike tour exposes quiet network of people belonging to the Collective Autonomy Movement

By Yo Noguchi

On a chilly December morning, Abigail Wick and other participants from AccessCafe lead a bicycle tour with the intention of exposing riders to other groups active in the Collective Autonomy Network.

The Collective Autonomy Network is a movement that spreads information and resources to help people meet their food, health care and other basic needs without damaging our world and society.

AccessCafe is an example of the Collective Autonomy Network in action. It’s an all-volunteer, nomadic restaurant that serves vegan food on a donation-basis in the Mission District.

Another example is the Punk Rock Brunch at the corner of Florida and 20th streets, where the bike tour started at 11 a.m. on December 7. Punk Rock Brunch is a donation-based food distribution collective that has been around since 2004. A mixed group of around 30 veterans and anxious newcomers enjoyed organic orange juice and coffee with fresh baguettes donated by Semifreddi’s Bakery located in Berkeley.

At around noon, participants mounted their bicycles and headed south towards Alemany Farm, the only farm within San Francisco’s city limits.

The farm is a project of the Alemany Resident Management Corporation, a nonprofit organization that gives the residents the opportunity and means to grow their own organic food. In this way, they hope to instill the importance of ecological-economic development and provide food security within the local community.
According to organizers, San Francisco is a fertile environment for urban agriculture projects like the Alemany Farm project.

Wick of AccessCafe, a transplant from North Dakota in her late 20s, has been a volunteer gardener at Alemany Farm for nearly four years.

“The best part of the farm is teaching the at-risk teens from the Bayview Hunters Point Parents of Success program about gardening. Some of these kids come and they haven’t ever seen where lettuce comes from or tomatoes grow. They just haven’t ever really been exposed to things like that,” said Wick.

Another example of the Collective Autonomy Netowork is Rainbow Grocery, a worker owned co-operative of natural and organic food.

A cooperative exists to serve its members, who also are the owners. So in addition to getting the products, members have a say in the co-op’s business decisions.

During a phone interview, 32-year-old Tyson Watts, event coordinator and head of public eelations at Rainbow, helped in clarifying the concept.

“Rather than rewarding outside investors with its profits, a co-op returns surplus revenue to its members in proportion to how much they use the co-op. This approach is more beneficial for the grocery and its members,” Watts explained.

In addition, Watts explained that most co-ops operate under a democratic structure.

In a variety of ways people are seeking more control over their lives. This is most noticeable in the area of food production and distribution. Farmers’ markets for example have blossomed all over the country. Small farms have been able to sustain themselves by transporting food locally for direct distribution to the consumers, cutting out the middleman and creating an economy directly controlled by buyer and seller.