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Illinois
Cooperatives empower today's farmers and consumers
How can you gain more control over your own destiny? The answer is by working together cooperatively. Co-ops empower farmers and consumers.
We recognize many products today as the highest quality without realizing they are brought to us by cooperatives. Some are Sunkist oranges, Welch's grape juice, Land O'Lakes butter, SunMaid raisins, Ocean Spray cranberry juice and Prairie Farms ice cream. These familiar products are brought to us by cooperatives.
Other co-op examples include those that provide electricity, telephone service, water, farm supplies and credit unions (cooperatively-owned banks). A myriad of other products and services are brought to us by businesses owned by the people who use them. In this country today, cooperatives can be found in every area where people take the initiative to help themselves and control more of their own destiny.
Cooperatives are member-owned and controlled and when there is a profit, members benefit rather than the money going to outside investors.
In many ways a cooperative is like any other business, but in several important ways it's unique and different. A cooperative belongs to the people who use it - the people who have organized to provide themselves with needed goods and services. A cooperative operates for the benefit of its members.
Every week we hear about businesses merging and getting larger. You may wonder how cooperatives measure up in these times of rapid change. I would suggest that cooperatives are ideal because members control them primarily through the election of their board of directors. In turn, employees have an extra incentive to change as the needs change because their customers own the business.
Cooperatives have been leaders in implementing new technology and services. Examples are precision farming practices and genetically-enhanced products that help farmers safeguard the environment. Another is the creation of new markets for identity-preserved grain and specialty crops. The markets for two well-known specialty crops — cranberries (Ocean Spray) and almonds (Blue Diamond), have been enhanced by member-owned cooperatives.
The cooperative idea is certainly time-tested. In 1752, Ben Franklin established the first successful cooperative, which still exists today. Over the years our ancestors have worked together to accomplish many things they could not have done alone. Cooperation in such activities as threshing rings, quilting and husking bees, and barn raisings added to their success. People sought to improve their lot by banding together and working cooperatively.
Although times continue to change, we can embrace the same cooperative values based on self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. In the tradition of their founders, cooperative employees and members believe in the ethical values of honesty and integrity, openness, social responsibility and caring for others.
As we enter the 21st Century, people recognize this self-help type of business is a good model for the future. The result is that more new cooperatives have been formed in the past five years than in the preceding 50. As a cooperative member you should be proud of your heritage and the role your organization plays in your community.
John Croft is public relations manager for GROWMARK, Inc, the regional cooperative for FS, and he is the current chairman of the Illinois Cooperative Council, an organisation of statewide agriculture-related businesses and ag colleges that promote the cooperation.
The opinions and views of guest commentators are their own and may not represent those of the Association of Illinois Electric Cooperatives or the electric co-ops of Illinois.
4 ILLINOIS COUNTRY LIVING • OCTOBER 2000 |
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John Croft