The Success of CO-OPs

The Success of CO-OP's. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. When I started doing the research for this story I was all of a sudden transported back into time with a wash of memories from my childhood. I grew up in a very small town in north central Kansas and one of the biggest businesses was out local co-op. It was a co-op gas station but it was the only one we had and apart from gassing up the Rambler it was where I went to get my bike tires fixed when flattened by goat heads. We also attended the annual co-op banquet each year help in our local school gymnasium. Over the years I have let those memories fade into the background but the co-op, short for cooperatives is alive in the U.S. USDA Rural Development's Eldon Eversull says although co-ops suffered due to the recent economic downturn, membership is anticipated to be strong along with a good sales year. EVERSULL: Grain prices are up and livestock prices are up again and dairy prices are back where they were a year ago so it looks like another great year is coming forward again for cooperatives and that will benefit all their members and owners. Eversull says there's a possible monetary benefit to being in a cooperative where members could see a bonus at the end of the year. He uses the gasoline co-op as an example. EVERSULL: If you were a member of a local cooperative and you bought your gasoline from the cooperative you might spend $2.90 a gallon. Okay, at the end of the year the cooperative decides how much it's made and so they may be able to give you back a nickel on the gallons that you bought. So they revolve this money back to their patrons so it's something additional off the top. You may think the 2.90 is a good price but then at the end of the year they can give you some money back, too. They try to operate at cost. The first agricultural cooperatives were created in Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century. They spread later to North America and the other continents. They have become one of the tools of agricultural development in emerging countries. Farmers also cooperated to form mutual farm insurance societies. In the U.S. today there are dozens of cooperatives including familiar names like the Dairy Farmers of America, Tillamook County Creamery Association, Snokist Growers, Land O'Lakes and Ocean Spray to name a few. Farmers form co-op's to pool resources and provide group discounts. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.