Since 2007, Small World Food has operated as a cooperatively run Rochester food business, turning ingredients from local organic farms into handmade baked goods and naturally fermented foods. Its small-batch kitchen draws on old-world baking and fermentation traditions, while its market work connects as many as 15 regional farms with customers. The cooperative’s members, including local farmers, are paid according to what their contributions produce rather than a flat hourly rate.
All Good BakersAll Good Bakers, founded by Nick and Britin Foster after they began baking for regional farmers’ markets in 2004, runs Albany’s farm-to-bakery café with from-scratch breads, baked goods and casual meals. The shop helped launch the Capital Region’s first Community Supported Bakery in 2010 and builds its menu around seasonal ingredients, sourcing about 90% of them from vendors at the nearby Delmar Farmers Market from spring through late fall. Its Delaware Avenue kitchen also serves as a co-op workspace for other small local food producers.ALBANY, NY
ZeromileFounded in 2025 in Allegheny County, Zeromile is building a worker-owned cooperative kitchen and market that puts food-production resources and decision-making in the hands of workers and small producers. Its dual-cooperative model pairs a buyers club for reduced-cost local food with shared production space, while connecting farms, cooks, and fermenters through community food programs and collaborative projects. Zeromile’s broader aim is a replicable, community-rooted food system centered on food access, economic sovereignty, and mutual aid.PITTSBURGH, PA
Hawthorne FoodsBorn two decades ago in the cellar of Hawthorne Valley Farm, Hawthorne Foods makes wild-fermented, ready-to-eat vegetables in New York’s Hudson Valley. The Hudson company works directly with organic family farms and produces raw, probiotic foods in a former plastic factory converted into an SQF-certified fermentation facility. Hawthorne Foods became a certified B Corporation in 2023, tying its growth to living soil, living wages and living foods.HUDSON, NY
HEX FermentsHEX Ferments began in 2010 as a performance-art collaboration between co-founders Meaghan and Shane before growing into a Baltimore food company known for its living ferments. It works with local organic farmers, including those using regenerative practices, and follows an unheated traditional process that preserves the activity of its sauerkraut and kombucha. Its bottle-exchange program has kept tens of thousands of pounds of glass out of waste and recycling streams, while the company has earned a Good Food Award and Slow Food’s Snail of Approval.BALTIMORE, MD