Co-op Development Action
High Plains Food helps consumers
gain access to local/regional foods
By Susann Mikkelson
Co-op Development Specialist
Rocky Mountain Farmers Union
usiness has never been
stronger for the Rocky
Mountain Farmers
Union Cooperative
Development Center,
which has been serving Colorado, New
Mexico and Wyoming for almost 15
years. The Center provides technical
assistance, helps find funding and
provides other general support to
individuals and groups seeking to start
cooperative businesses and similar
enterprises in rural communities. Its
efforts support everything from food
production and consumption interests
to renewable energy initiatives, and
from rural health care to preschool
development.
In the past two years, demand for the
Center’s services has grown
exponentially. Though the Center has
not formally tracked the reasons behind
this trend, it is likely a result of a
combination of factors, including the
Center’s continued outreach efforts and
growing interest in cooperatives as co-op
success stories surface around the
country. The recession, which left many
looking for new ways to generate
income, is another likely factor.
This trend includes rising interest in
new-generation and “blended”
cooperatives. There is a great deal of
ingenuity revolving around ways the
cooperative model can be adapted to
form successful businesses and other
ventures. Times have changed, and no
longer is the cooperative seen simply as
the town grain elevator or the feed and
seed supply store.
‘Local’ is a relative term
In the West, distances can be vast
between agricultural production areas
and population centers. Urban and
suburban expansion during the past two
decades has effectively converted almost
all of the farmland located adjacent to
these cities into residential or
commercial development.
There is growing consumer demand
in the Denver metro area and all along
the Front Range (the region’s main
population center) for locally and
sustainably produced foods. While this
interest in returning to a food system
that better sustains local economies
opens exciting possibilities for
producers, it also creates challenges.
Consequently, even with the growth of
farmers markets, it is difficult to find
enough local farmers to meet the
growing demand. Now more
restaurants, retail food stores, food
distributors, schools and other
institutions are also seeking
local/regional foods.
For small farms and ranches on the
high plains of eastern Colorado and
western Kansas, the Denver metro area
is the primary direct market. Still, this
represents a one- to four- hour drive for
producers in the region, making it very
hard for them to participate in multiple
farmers markets, which most would
need to do in order to generate enough
profits to justify the travel.
Thanks in part to the Internet and
the willingness of producers and
consumers to work cooperatively,
producers and consumers in the Rocky
Mountain region have identified a
viable alternative: a blended cooperative
that serves as a “virtual” farmers
market.
High Plains Food Co-op
The High Plains Food Cooperative
(www.highplainsfood.org) is an
excellent example of the creativity and
innovation being used by the new
generation of co-ops to meet this
demand for local food.
It all began with a small, but mighty,
group of producers that became
acquainted with consumers along the
Front Range who wanted more
local/regional foods. Ogallala
Commons, an organization incubated
through the Rocky Mountain Farmers
Union Cooperative Development
Center five years ago with the support
of USDA Rural Development funding,
introduced these producers to the
Oklahoma Food Co-op, an online
cooperative market.
These small-scale producers —
including cattle ranchers, hog farmers,
vegetable and herb growers, and even a
natural foods processor
— began to research
the model that was
being used successfully
in Oklahoma. They
made several visits to
the Oklahoma Food
Co-op’s distribution
facility.
They enlisted the
assistance of the Center
and began to develop a
plan for their own
cooperative. Three
years later, in May of
2008, the High Plains
Food Cooperative managed its first
food distribution, filling about 15
orders from consumer-members in the
Denver metro area; each order averaged
about $25.
At the end of 2009, the average
monthly order with the High Plains
Food Cooperative was just under $75.
In less than two years, the number of
producer-members grew by almost 50
percent, while consumer-memberships
soared 200 percent. Products available
through the online marketplace also
more than doubled.
Two levels of membership
The High Plains’ co-op model is
fairly simple. There are two classes of
membership: voting members (which
includes all producer-members) and
non-voting members. Although it is a
“blended” cooperative of producers and
consumers with the goal of meeting
consumers’ needs, production is still the
essential component at the core of the
co-op. Thus, providing these small
producers with access to an expanding
market is a key goal.
Consumer-members have the option
of joining as full, voting members and
taking on an active role in the
organization and management of the
co-op. Or they can be non-voting
consumer-members if they prefer to
simply gain a source of quality, local
foods while supporting small farmers in
their region.
The co-op board includes both
producers and consumers representing a
broad region of the service area.
The High Plains Food Cooperative
shows how the cooperative model can
successfully build a bridge between the
needs and interests of producers and
consumers. It is a cost-effective,
alternative model to the traditional
market.
School supply
and service co-op
The Rocky Mountain Cooperative
Development Center is currently
working with a private fund of a
community foundation in the Roaring
Fork River Valley near Glenwood
Springs, Colo., to help develop a service
and supply cooperative for independent
preschools in the area. These
preschools are usually located in resort
communities and primarily serve lowwage,
often single-parent workers.
The cooperative will help the
independent preschools share staffing
resources, such as nurses, dieticians and
substitute teachers. It will also provide
bulk order services and, possibly, offer
insurance pools, among other options.
If the effort is successful, the co-op will
help some of these much-needed
preschools remain in business.
The Center regularly receives calls
regarding concerns or interests for
which the cooperative business model is
a viable solution. In addition to the
examples discussed above, these
interests may be from budding
entrepreneurs or civic-minded investors
looking for alternative ways to invest
their money to support local economies
and people.
There continues to be much to learn
and explore in the world of cooperatives
— and many more bridges to build!
