Organizing Food Hubs as Cooperatives, Local Food Grounded in Community

California Food Hubs are local food distribution businesses, which have become increasingly important in part because of USDA recognition and funding, but also due to community efforts to re-localize food production in support of local farmers.  This is a critical moment for California Food Hubs. The design of the entity’s legal structure will help Food Hubs provide a community mechanism to redefine its relationship with its local land ecosystems and farmers, while simultaneously providing a way to re-invent our food system through cooperative federation. This workshop will explore legal entity choices for Food Hubs in California and propose some solutions for grounding them in place, particularly by establishing them as cooperative businesses.

Thérèse Tuttle represents California consumer cooperatives, agricultural cooperatives and worker cooperatives. She also advises clients on business formation and estate planning matters.

In 2000, she founded Tuttle & Van Knonynenburg, LLP, a firm focused on cooperative and agricultural law, with her law partner Frank Van Konynenburg; in 2001 the firm successfully defended the 400 members of Tri Valley Growers, a processing cooperative, from claims of creditors in the cooperative’s bankruptcy. Prior to founding the firm, she worked for California Farmers Union and served as Director of Cooperative and Economic Development for National Farmer’s Union, managing cooperative project requests from 23 state-based member organizations. In 2013, she drafted amendments to California’s cooperative law that enabled preferred-share financing and capitalization of cooperatives.  She has spoken on this topic at annual meetings of the California Center for Cooperative Development and has been awarded USDA’s “Great Cooperator” Award. She serves on the non-profits committee of the California State Bar Association.