Beginning as a buying club among friends, the Tidal Creek Co-op, opened its doors nearly twenty years ago. We see a lot of folks coming to the Co-op from other communities. A lot of Northerners and people from California, folks who have always had access to these food alternatives. Flora says there has definitely been an increase in the number of people seeking alternative foods and alternative health care. People are beginning to realize that Western medicine has its place, but it's not all it's cracked up to be.
Side effects can be detrimental, so they are looking for alternatives.
People may not have enough knowledge about individual remedies, but there are a lot of books and information out there. I think people are really looking differently at medicines. A lot of the chemicals we take have harmful side effects and cover up the problems as opposed to homeopathy, which helps cure the problem. Most people, in the kind of work that I do, use the term complementary medicine instead of alternative. And so more recently it's being referred to as complementary health care.