A food cooperative is a member-owned food store. It is typically set up that in order to shop there at discount prices, each person can become a member if they agree to volunteer a certain amount of time, and essentially they gain an ownership interest in the organization, much like a shareholder of a company.
Since it is prohibited to do business with (biblically prohibited) non-Kosher food, if the food cooperative also sells non-Kosher food (e.g. meat, seafood and the like), is there an issue for a Jew to participate?
On the one hand, the person could be said to be a minority share holder, not unlike owning some McDonald's stock. So they lack real controlling ownership of the company.
On the other hand, a shareholder would not gain any privileges due to his or her ownership of stock. At most they get limited voting rights (depending on the corporate structure). In a food cooperative, they actually work in the co-op with ownership privileges and special access.
Are there issues with being a member of a Food Cooperative in that context?
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