Spotlight
Park sees bright future for Texas ag co-ops
By Blair Fannin
Editor’s note: Fannin is associate news
editor for Texas AgriLife Research at A&M
University, College Station, Texas.
gricultural cooperatives,
though smaller in
numbers than in the past,
are providing more goods
and services than ever
before in Texas, and new ventures may
occur in the future, according to an
agriculture expert with Texas AgriLife
Extension Service.
“If you look at the amount of business
those co-ops are doing, they are actually
doing more business than they used to,”
says Dr. John Park, AgriLife Extension
economist and a Roy B. Davis professor of
agricultural cooperation at Texas A&M
University in College Station. “Those
cooperatives represent a large amount in
terms of dollars of equity and a large
economic contribution by these farmers
through a cooperative business.”
Park recently was named to the Davis
endowed professorship and serves both
AgriLife Extension and the agricultural
economics department at Texas A&M in
dual teaching outreach roles. Conducting
research on trends and advising
agricultural cooperatives is one of Park’s
main responsibilities.
“One of the things we are doing now is
trying to document the economic
contributions of cooperatives through
Texas, working through the Texas
Agricultural Cooperative Council,” he
says. “They’re very interested in seeing
this done; their individual members are
interested in seeing this done because it
means more support and more dollars
when talking to legislators.”
Park’s research and educational
responsibilities as part of the endowed
professorship extend beyond agricultural
cooperatives. For example, he and others
assisted the Texas citrus industry by
exploring the market potential of a freshcut
grapefruit retail product.
“Texas grapefruit happens to be a
fantastic product,” he says. “It’s the besttasting
fruit and it’s far undervalued. We’ve
worked with the Texas citrus industry and
Texas Citrus Mutual to evaluate new ways
of capturing value from that product.”
Park also deals with risk-management
issues. He and other Extension specialists
are working with a group of farmers in the
coastal region to mitigate damage done by
feral hogs to wheat, corn and sorghum
crops.
Park teaches two courses: Agricultural
Marketing 314 and Agricultural
Cooperation 413. The agricultural
cooperation course is part of the endowed
professorship and is designed to shape
future leaders who might become
employed by a cooperative after
graduation, he says.
His course instruction takes a different
approach: Students are elected to board
positions, with Park acting as the general
manager. Class members receive
“patronage dividends” in the form of grade
points for specific projects completed.
Park says he couldn’t be in a better
position in serving both Texas agriculture
and working with students at Texas A&M
who will someday be industry leaders.
“I’m really thrilled to be a part of the
cooperative environment here in Texas and
with people who are truly concerned about
not just their business, but their neighbors
and communities,” Park says. “To be part
of this Roy B. Davis professor-ship is very
exciting and a blessing for me.”
