COMMENTARY
Spreading the word
For 72 years, USDA (or, in its
early years, the Farm Credit
Administration) has been publishing
Rural Cooperatives magazine to
help increase public understanding
of the co-op business model and to
improve the operations of the
nation’s cooperatives. The name
and format have changed over the
years, but the mission has always
been the same: to help strengthen
rural America by ensuring that
farmers maintain a significant
ownership position in the marketing
and processing of their crops
and livestock, and in securing
quality, affordable farm supplies
and services for members.
Whether it’s an article on good
co-op governance practices, a Legal
Corner about an important court
decision impacting co-ops, a feature
on an innovative co-op or an analysis
of a co-op failure, each issue
contains information that can help
co-op leaders gain from the knowledge
and experience of others. Since
changing the name of the publication
from Farmer Cooperatives in
1996, we’ve also included more coverage
of rural utility and consumer
co-ops, although the emphasis
remains on ag co-ops.
Articles and photos are provided
not just by USDA staff, but by coops,
universities, co-op trade organizations,
extension offices and commodity groups, etc. Thus, the
magazine is a cooperative effort of
USDA and the co-op sector we
work so closely with.
With many organizations having
scaled back or curtailed their co-op
education efforts in recent years,
this magazine has an even larger
role to play than it has in the past.
But it’s all for naught if we don’t
get the information into the hands
of the people who can most benefit
from it: co-op directors and other
leaders.
To help increase readership
among co-op board members, we
can now offer seven copies of each
issue (free of charge), mailed in a
bundle, to your cooperative headquarters
for redistribution to directors.
See the back cover for details.
For those comfortable accessing
large documents on the Internet,
our new list-serve subscription
service may be preferable. Each time
a new issue is posted on our Web
site, an e-mail will go out with a
link to a PDF file. For those with
broadband Internet service, this
works particularly well.
You may request both the hard
copy packs and the electronic subscription
service. Typically, you’ll
get the Internet link about 10 days
before the hard copy.
While the primary target audience
for the magazine is co-op
directors, managers, ag educators
and other professionals who work
with co-ops (including extension
agents, attorneys and accountants),
the magazine may benefit any coop
member or anyone else thinking
of forming or joining a co-op.
Consider posting a link to the magazine
Web site on your co-op Web
site: www.rurdev.usda.gov/
rbs/pub/openmag.
Not only will you see the latest
issue of the magazine posted there,
but the previous six years of magazines
are also on-line at that site,
making this a helpful co-op education
and research tool. Back issues
are posted in both PDF an HTML
versions. If you have any questions
about either of these new services,
please don’t hesitate to call me at
(202) 720-6483, or send an e-mail
to: dan.campbell@usda.gov.
Dan Campbell, Editor
