PAGE FROM THE PAST
From the archives of Rural Cooperatives
and its predecessor magazines
50 Years Ago...
From the July & August 1957 issues of News for Farmer Cooperatives
Concentrated fresh milk stirs far-flung markets
Fresh concentrated milk in one-third quarts has aroused
interest from coast to coast, and as far away as Central and
South America. The Pure Milk Association (PMA), Chicago,
Ill., began selling the milk in February. Almost as soon as the
milk hit the market, newspapers began carrying stories about
it. Altogether, 18 weekly and nine daily newspapers, including
the Wall Street Journal, featured coverage about the milk.
Radio and television stations also broadcast the event.
In six weeks, PMA’s wholesale distribution of the milk
increased about 30 percent over
the first two weeks’ average. About
100 retail food stores in Southeast
Wisconsin are on the list to buy
the concentrate. Later the co-op
will expand into new areas in
southern Wisconsin and in Illinois,
and may look into export markets.
PMA’s Kansasville, Wis.,
plant makes, packages and stores
the concentrated fresh milk. The
plant also makes 93-score butter,
skim milk powder and ice cream
mix. It receives both can and bulk farm milk. The plant is
adding processing equipment to ensure uniform milk product
quality. To satisfy requests of many grocers and consumers,
the co-op may increase the size of the milk container to a
one-quart paper carton.
Women’s co-op market celebrates 25th year (cover article)
The silver anniversary of the Montgomery Farm Women’s
Cooperative Market, Bethesda, Md., drew about 2,000 visitors
from Washington, D.C., and nearby areas in late May. Among
those present were some of the pioneers whose hard work and
clear vision in the early days helped get the market started.
This women’s market, set in the heart of suburban
Bethesda, has long given its farm women ready cash for their
products: home baked bread, beans, hams, fresh eggs and
poultry, home canned fruits and vegetables, and crafts. The
market, open Wednesdays and Saturdays, typically sells about
$3,000 of farm-produced food on a Saturday.
“From tent to tent in 25
years,” smiled one co-op member,
thinking of the day the market first
started with women selling
products from their own farm
kitchens in a tent. Now, with their
own building on a valuable piece
of land, they again put up a tent
on the same site – but this time to
serve punch, coffee and cookies to
visitors who came to help them
celebrate their birthday.
The market now has 60
active sellers, many of them selling on the same spot for many
years. Nellie C. Hargett, one of the earliest members, joined
in 1933 and has since missed fewer than 10 market days, and
only then because of illness in the family.
30 Years Ago...
From the July & August 1977 issues of Farmer Cooperatives
Oregon co-op using shrimp, crab shells as fertilizer
Twenty farmers have formed the first cooperative in
Oregon to use shrimp and crab shells as fertilizer. At the same
time, the cooperative is resolving an ecological problem for
the Newport seafood processing industry.
The cooperative, Coastal Farmers Cooperative, has
contracted to remove shells from two of the half-dozen
seafood processors in Yaquina Bay.
The co-op expects to use 1,500 to
3,000 tons of shells annually from
the two contracts.
The co-op pays a refuse
collector to haul and dump the
shells onto farms. The member
farmers then spread the shells over
their pastures and fields and plow
them into the ground to
decompose. Preliminary testing
indicates a ton of shells provides 28 pounds of nitrogen, 10
pounds of phosphorous and 160 pounds of calcium.
Paul Keady, a cattle producer and president of the
cooperative, says he would rather use the shells than a
commercial fertilizer. He said the cost is slightly less and the
shells have the added benefit of promoting soil bacteria that
release nitrogen and other nutrients from sterile coastal soils.
Seafood processors have been placed under orders by the
state’s Department of Environmental Quality to stop dumping
shells into water. Keady explains, “The processors pay us $6 a
ton to haul away their shells and we sell the shells for the
same amount.” The cooperative then pays the hauling costs.
Global co-op collaboration needed
More experiments in international collaboration between
cooperatives are needed, according to a committee of the
International Federation of
Agricultural Producers (IFAP).
The Standing Committee on
Agricultural Cooperation of IFAP
took this position after voicing
concern for farmers’ interests in
the face of growing multinational
agrifood companies.
“Since 1960, there has been a
substantial acceleration in the
multinational character of
companies both upstream and
downstream,” the committee wrote. “Upstream concentration
is particularly strong and cooperatives are very weak in the
fertilizer industry, in farm machinery and in feeds at the
production stage. Downstream it would seem that
multinational companies currently supply 40 percent of
processed food products at the world level.”
IFAP is a federation of agricultural cooperative
organizations that are representative of the primary producers
within a country.
10 Years Ago...
From the July/August 1997 issue of Rural Cooperatives
Co-op involvement in ethanol industry grows despite
uncertainty
Over the past decade, the production of energy from
renewable resources has commanded considerable discussion
and excitement. Various programs at the state and federal level
have provided subsidies to start businesses in this industry.
Simultaneously, technological advances have lowered
production costs and the promise of economically viable
production continues to be “just around the corner.”
Since the early 1970s, many farm groups, including farmer
cooperatives, have been studying the economic possibilities of
producing ethanol, methane and
oil/fat-based fuels. A number of
representative organizations have
been formed to encourage the use
of “renewable fuels” and to
promote policies that would
provide an economic climate
suitable for the industry’s growth.
Currently, a number of new
ethanol refining facilities are in
operation, under construction or in
the planning stage. They offer great
potential to add economic value to corn and other feedstocks
through the production and marketing of fuel ethanol.
Despite the general enthusiasm for renewable energy from
the heartland, loan analysts from several banks for
cooperatives remain cautious. For example, the St. Paul Bank
for Cooperatives, which has been assessing the viability of
ethanol projects for more than 15 years, has chosen to finance
very few. Government tax credits and exhaust emission
regulations, among others, are major areas of concern to the
emerging ethanol industry.
The sunsetting of the federal excise tax reimbursement in
the year 2000 creates an aura of uncertainty around the
industry and especially any new fuel ethanol production
venture. Even though it is a subsidized industry still in its
infancy, ethanol has passed some significant milestones in the
U.S. fuel marketplace. Recent recognition of ethanol and
ethyl-tertiary butyl ether (ETBE) as high quality fuel additives
capable of delivering significant environmental, economic and
energy benefits to the consumer has spurred industry
production to record levels.
Co-ops are major players in providing energy products for
farm production, having a 41-percent market share in 1993.
That year, more than 2,500 cooperatives sold $5.2 billion of
energy products to rural America. Around 29 percent of the
gasoline sold by cooperatives contained ethanol.
To date, 11 farmer-owned ethanol production facilities are
in operation, and 14 are in the planning stages. When
completed, these plants are expected to comprise 38 percent
of the ethanol production capacity in the United States.
Thousands of farmers have collectively invested more than $1
billion to build ethanol facilities. Many thousands more co-op
members already produce feedstocks that can be used for
ethanol production.
Although the economic landscape of this industry is fraught
with uncertainty, profit opportunities may still exist given the
right set of circumstances of low corn prices and higher
ethanol and distillers dried grain prices.
