As Gas and food prices rise, most intelligent people who are trying to raise families or just survive will have to find a way to survive this worldwide. One of the ways to facilitate this is to form either from scratch or to add to existing food and/or fuel co-ops nationwide and worldwide.
For example, many food Co-ops in the U.S. allow members to supply time as a part of membership in the Co-op. So members actually volunteer a specific amount of time and act as checkers and stockers and even sometimes drivers of the food from farms to the Co-op wherever it may be. It might be possible to expand from Fuel or Food Co-ops into Solar and Wind Co-ops.
For example, in the cities it is more unlikely to be allowed to put up Wind generators because of the noise and vibration. However, if people already live in the Suburbs or country this becomes less of a problem and wind generator permits might be easier to obtain for groups. As the price of fuel increases worldwide these types of co-ops could be lifesavers and extremely cost effective relative to the price of fuels.
The main problem with this is that as these types of co-ops are expanded or founded they would also have to contend with times that oil might collapse in price so solar power and wind power might be less cost effective during these times. However, once enough people understand that oil is slowly leaving the earth just because of the exponential number of middle class people worldwide buying cars which is supposed to reach 4.9 Billion middle class people somewhere between 2030 and 2050, one can see oil and gas will soon be gone (10 to 25 years at most). So, Co-ops supplying alternative fuels and Organic foods will be a survival mechanism of intelligent people who don't want to have to go back to horse and buggies worldwide.
So, as more and more people drive Prius type Plug-ins or similar in cars and trucks worldwide, Food, Solar and Wind Co-ops will become more and more important to middle class people or any people that want to stay mobile for their jobs and their lifestyles. So, organic food and less expensive prices combined with cheap energy supplied by a co-op and saved in large banks of deep cycle batteries for plug in vehicles that can then reach 300 miles a charge or more like the Tesla can right now will be the norm rather than the exception out of survival and necessity all over the world. And I think you will see more and more banks of solar cells in the roofs and paint jobs of all vehicles eventually and any excess energy can be sold to your co-op or power company that you might not need that particular day.
Another type of idea might be for a Food Co-op to buy something like a Plug-in Prius or a bank of them for members to use who live in a large city that don't own cars but still can drive and need to on occasion. Survival and innovation go hand in hand, "Necessity is the mother of invention!"
