PAGE FROM THE PAST
From the archives of Rural Cooperatives
and its predecessor magazines
50 Years Ago...
From the January & February 1957 issues of News for Cooperatives
Citrus co-ops help growers share export bonus
Florida citrus growers earned $12.2 million from citrus
exports in the 1955-56 season. Growers realized that amount
over and above what they would have received had there been
no active export program.
According to
Martin Hearn, export
coordinator of Florida
Citrus Mutual, “Every million
boxes of Florida
oranges shipped overseas,
either in fresh or processed
form, results in an increase
of 5 cents per box on the
entire remaining production
consumed domestically.
On grapefruit, when
production is within tolerable
limits, this figure is 13
cents per box.” Or, as
Hearn indicates, growers’
returns for oranges are 3
percent higher at the ontree
level for each 1 percent
of the total Florida
crop exported.
This program should
interest cooperators, not
only in Florida, but in
other areas as well, for it
offers a modern-day lesson
that clearly demonstrates
the value of cooperative
organization.
Florida Citrus Mutual
put on a campaign in the
fall of 1955 to acquaint sales personnel with the preferences
and requirements of the European market, which included a
10-day tour of those markets by mostly cooperative shippers.
On the heels of this trip came the realization that Spanish citrus
exports for that season and for seasons to come would be
severely curtailed due to an unusually bad freeze. Interest in
the export market took on a new look. As a result of this
emphasis on exports, Florida’s 1955-56 fresh overseas export
volume showed an increase of nearly 461,000 boxes, or 41
percent, over the previous seasons. The state’s two largest citrus
marketing cooperatives accounted for almost nine-tenths
of the increase last season.
Locker plants: new merchandising mechanism
Frozen-food locker plants can help farmers process and sell
locally some of what they produce. These plants also help
farmers consume a portion of their own food.
Community frozen-food locker plants—plus their “sidekick,”
the home freezer—offer farmers a unique, built-toorder
mechanism for improving local processing and merchandising.
Since most plants are located near the source of
livestock, poultry and other perishable foods, they can process
and merchandise foods in wholesale quantities direct to locker
and home freezer patrons, as well as to retail outlets, institutions
and others in localized areas.
Such a system of marketing cuts labor, transportation and
handling costs, bypasses or eliminates some steps in the marketing
process and converts the farmer’s raw product into a
form of commercial product suitable for consumer use.
Because of these plants’ direct contact with consumers, they
can ascertain consumers’ preferences and more quickly reflect
them back to producers, as well as narrow the spread between
producers and consumers.
30 Years Ago...
From the January and February 1977 issues of Farmer
Cooperatives
Farmer co-ops show
innovation with special services
Agricultural cooperatives provide a variety of special or
unusual services to meet the needs of their farmer members,
according to a new study compiled by John M. Bailey, senior
agricultural economist with USDA’s Farmer Cooperative
Service. Crop production aids offered by cooperatives include
machinery rental, bulk handling of seed, crop monitoring,
pest management, yield improvements and citrus grove care.
Livestock production services include fence construction,
cattle feeding, and determination
of total-dairyration
profiles, establishing
new turkey growers in
a risk-sharing program,
and maintaining a truck
route for dairy supplies.
Among marketing
services are selling potatoes
in the futures market,
assembling black
walnuts for sale, and
freezing fish for price
stabilization.
Management services
include an advance
deposit program that
earns interest on the
deposit, an economic
feasibility study guide, and a farm consulting and tax service.
Individual co-op members are being offered health examinations,
a credit card program, commercial painting service,
mortuary service, and employee commuter vans.
NMPF meeting focuses on Capper-Volstead
Words of assurance about the Capper-Volstead Act and a
challenge to preserve cooperatives and dairy marketing programs
were heard at the National Milk Producers Federation
(NMPF) annual convention, Nov. 28 to Dec. 1, 1976.
“There is no threat to the Capper-Volstead Act,” explains
Congressman Thomas S. Foley, chairman of the House
Committee on Agriculture. “The new administration has
committed to protect the basic legislation and the needs of the
agriculture movement. Congressional support is overwhelmingly
strong and it must be continued.”
Foley also told the 2,500 dairy farmers and cooperative
leaders assembled in San Francisco that it may be necessary to
extend the current farm legislation one year to give the new
administration more time to review current programs. He
concluded by calling for federal disaster protection for farmers,
some form of price support programs and increased agricultural
research and education programs.
NMPF Secretary Patrick B. Healy warned that cooperatives,
the market order program, the price support program
and preservation of the domestic milk market must not be
impaired legislatively. Continuing, Healy said extra care must
be taken to make certain that “damage is not done to the
complex of legislation that has made farming possible in
today’s America.” Referring to these programs, Healy concluded,
“Let the word go out from here and be heard by all
those responsible—or who become responsible in areas of
interest to dairy farmers—that there are certain things we
hold to be inviolable.”
10 Years Ago...
From the November/December 1996 issue of Rural Cooperatives
Harvest States launches investment plan
With the disappearing safety net of government farm programs,
producers and their cooperatives are looking to the
marketplace to provide greater returns. Harvest States
Cooperatives, which just
reported record earnings
of $57.9 million on total
sales of $8.2 billion, has
devised a strategy to
accomplish that goal.
The Harvest States
Investment Plan applies
to the co-op’s strengths
and established track
record, adding the best
of the new, definedmembership
cooperative
approach. The catalyst in
the mix is a commitment
to strive for the maximum
return to members
from value-added processing, marketing and services.
The plan gives producers and cooperatives an opportunity
to increase returns from Harvest States food processing operations
by investing in “equity participation units.” Investments
would be available on a per-bushel basis. They would carry
the right and obligation for the member-investor to deliver
the number of bushels involved to an authorized delivery
point, normally a nearby member cooperative or Harvest
States facility. This provision is a key element in ensuring that
the plan qualifies for cooperative status.
Co-op banks hold market share
A new Farm Credit Administration report notes that while
the Farm Credit System (FCS) has lost market share since the
mid-1980s, banks for cooperatives have maintained their historical
average market share of about 60 percent. Banks for
cooperatives’ portion of the FCS loan portfolio more than
doubled, from 10.9 percent to 26 percent, during the same
period.
The report traces changes since 1969 in rural and farm
demographics, as well as the characteristics of farm finance
and farm real estate, as well as modifications that have
occurred in the financing of farmer cooperatives.
