CO-OP DEVELOPMENT ACTION
Forging family-to-family
food chains
ooperative Development
Services (CDS) is one of
the nation's best known
sources of expertise and
information for existing
food co-ops. It was a natural step for
CDS to become a partner in the
FoodCoop500 initiative, which seeks to
raise the number of food co-ops in the
United States from 300 to 500 by 2015
(visit: www.foodcoop500.coop). The
other partners are NCB (formerly
National Cooperative Bank)/NCB
Capital Impact and the National
Cooperative Grocers Association, which
recently pledged $200,000 to support
the project for the next two years.
Recently, CDS reaffirmed its longstanding
commitment to producer coops,
as well as consumer co-ops, with a
new initiative. "We will work with
producers of natural and organic
products for a sustainable world," said
CDS Director Kevin Edberg. "As with
our renewable energy work [profiled in
the July-Aug. 2006 issue of Rural
Cooperatives] we will leverage our
contacts to help producers find
relationships with food retailers that
support their entry to the market."
One example of this work is with
PastureLand, a small organic dairy coop
that makes cheese and butter from
cows that graze on carefully managed
grasslands in southeastern Minnesota.
In 2006, the co-op's butter won its
third consecutive award at the American
Cheese Society Competition and
Judging.
PastureLand General Manager Jean
Andreasen worked at Mississippi
Market food co-op in St. Paul, Minn.,
for more than a decade, providing her a
good look at the work CDS does with
consumer-owned retail stores. "They
helped Mississippi Market with our
expansion project, staff trainings and
surveys. They were always there when
we needed something. So when I came
to PastureLand and wanted some
professional co-op business development
services, I knew where to go."
CDS helped PastureLand write a
business plan and raise funds for
operations. "I'm really happy with the
relationship we've been able to
cultivate," Andreasen adds.
Prior to coming to PastureLand,
Andreasen was marketing coordinator
for the Midwest region of Food
Alliance, a national certification
organization for environmentally
friendly and socially responsible
agriculture practices, funded by Land
Stewardship Project and CDS.
PastureLand was the only Food
Alliance-certified dairy cooperative in
the region, and she worked with the
members to "market their co-op
difference" by placing articles about the
co-op’s products, practices and
producers in the newsletters of all the
food co-op stores in the area.
These stores have long-standing
commitments to local producers and
already carried PastureLand’s butter
and cheese, but this was an additional
link, from one cooperative to another.
Andreasen points out that this is a way
of implementing both the fifth and sixth
International Co-op Principles:
commitment to education and
cooperation among co-ops. And that’s
good for co-op business.
MOON lights up Ohio
The mission of the Miami Oxford
Organic Network Co-operative Services
Inc. (or MOON Co-op) is to help grow
a sustainable food system in southern
Ohio and Indiana. Its nearly 250
members – local producers as well as
urban and rural consumers – plan to
open a natural foods store that
specializes in local and regional farm
products.
Earlier this year, the group was
visited by Stuart Reid, who has been
hired to work fulltime with grant
recipients of the FoodCoop500
program. He was "very impressed with
the groundwork" the co-op had done,
saying "their hard work bodes well for a
vibrant and successful store."
This year MOON received a
$25,000 Sprout Fund loan from
FoodCoop500 following a $10,000 FC-
500 Seed Fund grant it won last year. In
addition to financial assistance, co-op
members take part in regular
conference calls with consultants and
people from successful co-ops, and the
board submits regular reports on its
progress to Reid.
From the very beginning, co-op
organizers sought help from their local
specialists at the Ohio Cooperative
Development Center (OCDC).
Treasurer Debra Peter recalls, "In our
initial organizing stages, OCDC helped
us determine the
structure and function of
our organization and
provided us with contacts
and resources to get
incorporated. We also
received two $5,000 startup
grants from OCDC
that were used for
professional fees and
supplies. We have a solid
legal and financial
foundation for our
cooperative because of
the assistance provided by
OCDC."
Midwest farmers sharing resources
Farmers throughout the Midwest are
being challenged by rising costs of
machinery and shortages of skilled
labor. Some farmers are sharing these
resources to reduce costs and improve
efficiency. But there are a number of
factors to consider before making such
a move. These include tax, liability and
farm payment eligibility issues
associated with sharing equipment and
labor, as well as identifying available
resources to help producers plan and
implement that sharing.
To help producers better evaluate
proposed sharing arrangements, Iowa
State University Extension and
University of Missouri Extension
economists developed a "Machinery and
Labor Sharing Arrangements"
workshop, held in three locations last
winter. More than 80 people attended,
many looking for options to help them
efficiently transfer assets to the next
generation of farmers, or to a young
producer working to get established.
The case study research that served
as a framework for the workshop was
developed by the Iowa Alliance for
Cooperative Business Development as
part of a Rural Cooperative
Development Grant from USDA Rural
Development (more at:
www.machinerysharing.info). Program
sponsors were North Central Risk
Management Education Center,
Leopold Center for Sustainable
Agriculture, Iowa State University
Extension and University of Missouri
Extension. The Iowa Farm Bureau
Federation and Grundy National Bank
also collaborated.
Cooperating in the Southwest
The Beneficial Farm and Ranch
Collaborative originated with a group
of farm families in southern Colorado
and northern New Mexico who sought
to meet the rising demand for a stable
supply of fresh foods in one of the
nation's most challenging growing
regions. They developed a labeling
initiative to reward organic farmers and
ranchers and to provide incentives for
conventional producers who would
agree to make the transition toward
organic.
The staff of Rocky Mountain
Farmers Union Cooperative
Development Center helped the
producers with strategic business
planning as well as outreach and
recruitment. The producers were
seeking to increase their product base
without the demand for spending more
time off the farm.
The Center's Dan Hobbs notes,
"From the outset there was discussion
about how the members were going to
sustain themselves as a service
cooperative when most of the other
'buy local' labeling programs are not
economically viable."
The answer came in the form of
consumer-owned La Montanita Food
Cooperative. Begun in 1976 by 300
families in Albuquerque, today the coop
has 13,000 consumer-members,
annual sales of more than $20 million,
and four stores located in Albuquerque,
Santa Fe and Gallup, N.M. In recent
years, annual member surveys indicated
that the desire for local products was
surpassing the desire for organics. So
the retailer stepped in to help the
producers.
"What the farmers could not do
alone, the consumers had the
wherewithal to help them achieve," says
Hobbs. "This has reduced duplication
in the delivery process and saved
producers valuable time as well as
money. And it has spread the risk more
evenly between the producers and the
consumers."
Food co-op members supported a
plan to lease a refrigerated truck and
pay drivers to pick up the food at the
farms and bring it to the stores. More
suppliers were recruited. Other retail
partners — including natural food
chain Whole Foods — were invited to
join the "regional food shed" project. A
full-time manager (one of the original
Beneficial Co-op member farmers) and
an assistant manager were hired to run
the distribution operation.
Last January, La Montanita opened a
10,000 square foot distribution center
that includes 3,000 square feet of
refrigerated storage and 1,000 square
feet of frozen storage. A second truck
will be leased soon.
In 2006, 20 percent of La
Montanita's sales were from 400
products grown or raised locally and/or
with substantive value added within the
region. "This is a long-term project
that must include as many producers,
retailers and consumers as possible to
move the needle on local production
here in New Mexico," says La
Montanita General Manager C.E.
Pugh. "We don’t know how much is
possible. We do believe that we must
actively work within our community to
increase the market and value of these
goods or the decline in regionally
produced food for local markets will
continue."
Buying food locally as well as from small co-ops in developing nations (top) is often called “fair trade at home,” and is practiced by many food co-ops, such as the Wedge. Beneficial's award-winning eggs (lower left) are featured at La Montanita Co-op.
Members of Moon Co-op in Ohio move ahead with plans for a store featuring local food.
Photos courtesy featured co-ops
CooperationWorks! goes co-op
The national network of cooperative development centers has reorganized
itself as a member-owned service cooperative. This will enable individuals and
other organizations engaged in the development of new co-op enterprises to
join. Members may select from a menu of services delivered at cost.
In addition to continuing as a professional peer network for practitioners
engaged in the development of new cooperative businesses, CooperationWorks!
program priorities for 2007 include the popular professional development training
'The Art & Science of Developing a Cooperative Business' (two intensive fiveday
sessions in Madison, Wis.); three face-to-face membership meetings; more
of CW's well-attended conference calls on relevant issues for the development
of new cooperative enterprises; and maintaining a listserve that will help members
seek and share information more readily.
The new co-op also plans to continue its public education and advocacy for
the development of new cooperative enterprises as an effective economic
development strategy, which includes the publication of its newsletter Net-
Works. For more information contact: Audrey Malan at 307-655-9162, or
cw@vcn.com.
