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Programs & Services
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CooperationWorks!Success StoriesThrough cooperative economic development, CooperationWorks! helps communities create jobs, save family farms, keep schools full, and increase prosperity. Co-ops keep income in the community, building wealth, creating jobs, and reinvigorating economies. CooperationWorks! centers have helped develop 117 new businesses in rural communities, owned and controlled by their 27,240 members, and have created more than 1,700 new rural jobs. Investment in these cooperative businesses exceeds $620 million. Some of our success stories: The Center for Cooperatives, University of California Dakotas Cooperative Business Development Center Cooperative Development Institute/Cooperative Life Ohio Cooperative Development Center Value-Added Agriculture Development Center The Kentucky Center for Cooperative Development Federation of Southern Cooperatives Arkansas Rural Enterprise Center The Northwest Cooperative Development Center The Nebraska Cooperative Development Center Missouri Farmers Union Family Farm Opportunity Center Keystone Development Center Cooperative Development Services Montana Cooperative Development Center Mississippi Cooperative Development Center Rocky Mountain Farmers Union Cooperative Development Center | ||||
This grower-owned marketing cooperative has become the second largest supplier of organic almonds in the United States. The 19-member co-op has helped organic almond growers reduce costs and develop markets for less-recognized varieties of almonds. As general manager Wendy D'Elosua says, "Big Tree Organic Farms is on the cutting edge of getting organic almonds from the farm to the fork as directly as possible."
Since
late 1999, Cloverdale Growers Alliance's 20 members have delivered more than
100,000 hogs to Cloverdale Foods Company's slaughter facility. Cloverdale Foods
markets fresh pork and processed meat products across 10 states. The Alliance
negotiated a unique pricing arrangement with Cloverdale Foods that allows members
to be paid for each hog delivered on the value of the meat rather than on a
live price basis. In addition, the producers are paid for the hide, edible offal
and other by-products. Members consistently receive more for their hogs. Alliance
members' goal is to increase delivery to 165,000 hogs and become part owners
of Cloverdale Foods, allowing them to share in the company profits.
CDI, the Connecticut Green Industry Association, Connecticut Department of Agriculture and USDA's Rural Development office are working together on a plastics recycling cooperative to serve farmers, green house growers, and nursery owners. The cooperative will process nursery, greenhouse and tobacco films and drip tape for 30 members. It will save money, protect the environment, and reduce space in local landfills.
A conference for commercial rabbit producers in Ohio and Indiana in 2001 led to a survey to explore the potential of forming a rabbit marketing cooperative. A group of five producers marketing rabbit meat on a small scale has formed the Country Flavor Steering Committee. The group is researching the feasibility of owning a processing facility and expanding markets for rabbit meat.
Heartland Producers, LLC, unites farmers with a successful business with both ethanol and livestock products. Heartland Grain Fuels operates two ethanol facilities in Aberdeen and Huron. The South Dakota Wheat Growers and Farmland Industries formed the company in 1991. HGF requested assistance from the Center to facilitate the sale of 46.3 percent of its shares held by Farmland Industries to a producer-owned group. Heartland Producers LLC, was established to represent the farmer purchasers of the shares. 
With major changes in the tobacco industry, the Western Dark Fired Tobacco Growers Association began looking for new opportunities, specifically landscaping trees to market cooperatively. After raising funds and conducting a feasibility study, which showed potential, the group is now planning a more thorough feasibility study and development of a business plan. The Kentucky West Nursery Cooperative was incorporated in 2001. Nineteen producers have raised $80,000 in equity that will be augmented by low-interest loans to move the business plan forward.
In the past two years more than 750 black farmers, activists, community organizers and rural residents have received training and business development support through the Rural Cooperative Development program. New cooperatives in organic produce, catering, daycare and forestry are the results.
Bringing together the latest in climate change technology with a cooperative network, farmers are working to preserve natural resources and generate new revenue. Under the program, 11,500 acres of marginal cropland will be converted to bottomland forests. Members of the network will earn income by selling carbon offsets, leasing lands for hunting, and eventually harvesting timber from sustainably managed forests.
Fifteen rural electric cooperatives, municipal utilities and other members from Washington, Oregon, Nevada and California have taken to the winds to provide affordable, reliable, renewable cost-based electricity to consumers. The co-op was formed to research and develop renewable energy projects and is projected to have several hundred megawatts of wind-generated power on line by 2006.
Established to provide locally grown food for restaurants and others, the network created a new food system that returns greater profit to the producer. The first demonstration of this was a gathering of 100 people who were served locally grown food, with menus describing the farm families who produced it. The network has been instrumental in forming a statewide cooperative to assist producers in marketing their products.
Ozark Mountain Pork Cooperative processes and sells high-quality consumer-ready pork products. The 30 farmer-owners are part of an integrated production system with strict protocols for raising pigs in natural environments and with limited antibiotics. The co-op is supplying grocery stores, restaurants, and individual shoppers with preferred pork products at reasonable prices that provide greater margins to the producers. The cooperative is projected to process and market 35,000 hogs per year.
Fifteen family cattle ranchers in southwestern Pennsylvania formed the cooperative to market their fresh and frozen beef products. After extensive test marketing, their frozen, prepared beef entrees are now available in grocery stores around Pittsburgh. The group recently completed a survey of potential institutional customers and has developed a marketing plan for expansion into that new market.
Headquartered in Lone Rock, Wisconsin, the cooperative provides a range of services to its member-owners, including land stewardship education, development of certified sustainable forest management plans, and harvesting, processing, and marketing services for forest products. With 150 members owning 20,000 acres of forestland, purchased a 4.5-acre sort yard and built a large solar kiln to process timber products. SWC expects to have 25,000 to 35,000 acres under sustainable management by the end of 2002.
With lamb prices at levels of 20 years ago, the Sweet Grass County Wool Marketing Association explored the business potential of a vertically integrated lamb marketing enterprise. After a feasibility study concluded the venture would not be profitable the group redirected efforts toward niche markets and began developing case-ready lamb. Currently the group is raising funds to test-market their products. Several members have also joined Dakota Natural Lamb, a farmer-owned cooperative specializing in lamb raised without growth hormones or antibiotics.
Headquartered in Mount Bayou, Mississippi, the cooperative is owned by growers in Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana with 1,630 acres in sweet potatoes and a potential exceeding 400,000 bushels per year. The cooperative operates a processing, curing, storage, packaging and shipping facility and is in the early stages of building a larger processing and food packing plant.
Located in three river basins in Southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico, the cooperative was started by nine farmers in 2001. It is expanding market opportunities for organic vegetables, fruits, meats, eggs, grains, flours, baked goods and seeds. With a manager, a refrigerated truck, and a wider array of organic products, the farmers are able to reach profitable markets in more populated areas of the states. Products are sold through buying clubs and farmers markets, as well as to restaurants and food service. Sales for the second year of operation are projected to exceed $500,000.