Margaret shares that Seattle was a huge part of the creation of the modern food movement, but so much of that has been lost to history.

She was part of the Seattle Worker’s Brigade, “A worker collective, that was worker self-managed and women-owned.” It was "explicitly anti-corporate, alternative, our motto was 'Food for People, Not for Profit.' Decidedly counter-culture."

Margaret was a pioneering member of Cooperative Community Grains or CC Grains, a food distributor in Seattle in the 1970s, serving food co-ops from Alaska to Montana, as well as Washington State, when there was low-home and store-front rent, a higher quality of life, and many alternative and worker-owned options for healthcare, daycares, schools, bookstores, newspapers, as well as environmentalism and activism.

Referenced:

The Crisis of Democracy Book

By Jōji Watanuki, Michel Crozier, and Samuel P. Huntington

The Tyranny of Structurelessness

By Jo Freeman

Constructive Criticism: A Handbook

By Gracie Lyons

Pictured here: http://margaretbartley.name/CCGrains/Warehouse.jpg 

Description: CC Grains, Margaret is sitting crosslegged in the very front, wearing dark glasses.

CC Grains, which was one part of the larger Seattle Workers’ Brigade.  This photo was taken around 1976.

CC Grains was an all-womyn’s warehouse distributing organic and natural foods to co-ops, buying clubs and natural foods stores ranging from Alaska to Montana to Oregon, centered in Seattle, WA

It was part of the Alternative Economic System, and was a crucial link in developing the organic food industry.