PAGE FROM THE PAST
From the archives of Rural Cooperatives
and its predecessor magazines
50 Years Ago…
From the May and June 1956 issues of News for Farmer
Cooperatives
Bulk milk handling challenge
Dairy cooperatives face a challenge in converting to bulk
milk handling. “A cooperative’s success is measured largely in
terms of the degree to which it provides services demanded and
needed by producers. Producers need and (in many cases) are
asking their cooperatives for assistance in solving problems
associated with bulk handling methods. In converting to bulk
milk handling, cooperatives have many tasks facing them. By
setting up a successful system, these co-ops can make savings
for their members in four principal ways: through the improved
quality of the milk, reduced transportation costs, reduced
receiving costs and reductions in the loss of milk and butterfat.”
Small rabbit co-op does good business
Demand for rabbit meat in the United States has been
soaring, from 6 million pounds in 1935 to about 50 million
pounds in 1950. Helping to meet that demand is the Virginia
Rabbit Market Cooperative in Roanoke. The co-op began
business in 1934 with seven rabbit breeder members, with
sales that year of less than 1,000 pounds live weight. These
members were breeding rabbits chiefly for show purposes.
But they found themselves with extras and they started looking
for a market for these healthy young, edible rabbits. In
1934 it wasn’t easy to sell rabbits for food because of the danger
of contracting tularemia (rabbit fever). But as the years
passed, consumer demand for rabbit increased tremendously.
By 1955, co-op membership had climbed to more than 450
members in West Virginia, North Carolina and Virginia.
CCA moves supplies to 500,000 farmers
Maximum transportation services at minimum costs are an
aim of Consumers Cooperative Association (CCA), Kansas
City, Mo., a large regional supply cooperative serving close to
half a million farmers in nine Midwestern states. Its farm supplies
move by rail, steamship, waterways, trucks and pipelines.
Farmers have a right to expect their cooperative wholesalers to
keep transportation costs to a minimum and, at the same time,
provide maximum services. CCA’s members are concerned
with the movement of supplies from the purchase of raw materials
through processing and manufacturing, storage and intraplant
handling, packing and shipping and on to delivery to
local member associations for distribution to farmers.
30 Years Ago…
From the May and June 1976 issues of Farmer Cooperatives
Energy to determine status as world power
“At least 10 issues must be resolved if the nation is to solve
its energy problems,” Robert D. Partridge, executive vice
president and general manager of National Rural Electric
Cooperative Association, told a group of cooperative association
editors. If the nation cannot solve its energy shortages, it
runs the risk of perhaps eventually becoming a “fourth- or
fifth-rate world power.” The 10 issues include: (1) dependency
on oil from abroad; (2) failure to conserve energy; (3)
necessity of shifting more to electricity; (4) commitments to
rapid cleanup of air and water; (5) accelerated research and
development of alternative sources of energy; (6) reliance on
price as the regulator of the energy field; (7) lack of governmental
commitment and determination to develop a national
energy policy; (8) factor of public fear and doubt; (9) monopoly
in the basic fuels industry; and (10) need for education.
MFC to produce, market Mississippi’s ‘Super Food Bar’
A “super food bar” developed by Mississippi State food
specialists has created a new role for MFC Services, a regional
farmer cooperative based at Jackson, Miss. MFC has been
selected by Mississippi State College Board as sole international
production and marketing agent for the super food bar.
The board selected MFC because the cooperative already had
the marketing machinery and expertise to make the product
available worldwide. Iran is planning a school food program
and the Shah is interested in a high-protein food supplement
to be included. The Shah’s specifications call for: individually
wrapped snack bars that provide 200-300 calories of protein,
that no refrigeration be required and that cost per serving be
18 to 20 cents. The team came up with four types of food
bars: brownie, toffee, oatmeal and sweet potato, with oatmeal
being the flavor most favored in Iran.
Indiana co-op’s 50th year gilded by records
“Indiana’s largest agricultural gathering — drawing about
15,000 people — observed the golden anniversary of Indiana
Farm Bureau Cooperative Association Inc. The 50th annual
meeting was the setting for special observances and reports of
the cooperative’s record year in sales and net savings during
1975.” In commenting on the annual meeting’s theme of “50
Years in Progress,” Harold P. Jordan, special assistant to the
general manager and recently retired as the cooperative’s
general manager, noted that agriculture’s advance “did not
come by accident or good fortune. It came about because a
lot of people on the farm, at Purdue University, in USDA
and in this and other cooperatives worked together to make
agriculture more efficient, to produce more wholesome,
nutritious food for consumers and to provide more adequate
and equitable income for farmers.”
10 Years Ago…
From the May/June 1996 issue of Rural Cooperatives
Sound co-op business ethics
“Cooperatives were generally organized on a community
basis where social relations, such as kinship and friendship,
provided a basis of trust,” explains Paul Lasley and C. Phillip
Baumel in an article on ethical standards for co-ops. “Early
cooperative leaders recognized that they needed to sharply
differentiate themselves from traditional private sector businesses.
A key ingredient to achieving cooperation was
establishing rapport and building trust with and among
producers. The early organizing efforts stressed the
importance of farmer control, honesty, integrity and
high ethical standards. This attention to honest business
practices and treating all patrons fairly attracted
many new members. Trust and commitment to ethical
business practices provide the basis for cooperation and
are essential for people to join together and work for
mutual goals. Without trust, people do not communicate
and cooperation is unlikely.”
Harvest States’ Texas mill ahead of schedule
“Construction of a new, 10,000-hundredweight flour
mill in Houston, Texas, to serve cooperatives is ahead of
schedule thanks to dry weather during the early stages of
construction, according to Harvest States Cooperatives of St.
Paul, Minn. The mill is being built for Amber Milling Co., a
division of Harvest States. It will process hard-red winter and
spring wheat to produce bread flour. The Houston mill is the
second of three new, hard-red winter wheat mills to be built
by Harvest States and Amber Milling to bring more of the
food dollar back to member-producers. Unlike the cooperative’s
mill at Kenosha, Wis., which has adjoining grain storage
tanks, a nearby grain elevator operated by the Houston
Port Authority is available for unloading and storing incoming
grain. The site is served by two rail lines.”
Health network enhances services in mountain
“A combination of rising health care costs and cutbacks in
health and social programs at both the state and federal level
has left many rural communities struggling to maintain or
establish needed health care facilities and related social services.
When the health of our rural population is negatively
affected, it increases the odds of a general economic downturn.
A healthy community may be able to withstand an economic
crisis, but when health services are eroding, economic stress is
compounded and the viability of rural communities is threatened.
The reduction or elimination of many costly health and
human services programs could have a severe impact on rural
America. To plan for even
the best-case scenario in
this setting, rural communities
need to be innovative
and collaborate. They need
to begin planning now, if
they haven’t already done
so. Eagle County, Colo., is
developing an innovative,
shared-services agency that
operates on cooperative
principles and is surmounting
these negative trends
and improving the delivery
of health and human services
to its residents.”
