Agricultural cooperative, also known as a farmers' co-op, is a cooperative where farmers pool their resources in certain areas of activity. A broad typology of agricultural cooperatives distinguishes between agricultural service cooperatives, which provide various services to their individually farming members, and agricultural production cooperatives, where production resources (land, machinery) are pooled and members farm jointly.^[1] Agricultural production cooperatives are relatively rare in the world, and examples include collective farms in former socialist countries and the kibbutzim in Israel. Worker coperatives provide an example of production cooperatives outside agriculture. The default meaning of agricultural cooperative in English is usually an agricultural service cooperative, which is the numerically dominant form in the world. There are two primary types of agricultural service cooperatives, supply cooperative and marketing cooperative. Farmers also widely rely on credit cooperatives.

Supply cooperatives

Agricultural supply cooperatives are cooperatives that supply farmers with required inputs for agricultural production including seeds, fertilizers, fuel, and services.

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Marketing cooperatives

Agricultural marketing cooperatives are cooperative businesses owned by farmers, to undertake transformation, packaging, distribution, and marketing of farm products (both crop and livestock).

Examples

Canada

In Canada, the most important cooperative of this kind was the wheat pools. These farmer-owned cooperatives bought and transported grain throughout Western Canada. They replaced the earlier privately and often foreign-owned grain buyers and came to dominate the market in the post-war period. By the 1990s, most had demutualized (privatized), and several mergers occurred. Now all the former wheat pools are part of the Viterra corporation.

Former wheat pools include:

• Alberta Wheat Pool
• Manitoba Pool Elevators
• Saskatchewan Wheat Pool
• United Grain Growers

United States

• American Legend Cooperative (mink fur) "Blackglama" brand
• Blue Diamond Growers (almonds)
• Cabot Creamery (dairy)
• Cotton Incorporated (cotton)
• Diamond of California (nuts), formerly a cooperative
• Dairylea Cooperative Inc. (Dairy), formerly Dairymen's League
• Florida's Natural Growers (citrus fruit)
• Gay Lea Foods Co-operative Limited (dairy)
• Land O'Lakes (dairy and farm supply)
• Ocean Spray (cranberries and citrus fruit)
• Riceland Foods (rice, soybeans, and wheat)
• Sunkist Growers, Incorporated (citrus fruit)
• Sun-Maid (raisins)
• Sunsweet Growers Incorporated (dried fruit, especially prunes)
• Tillamook County Creamery Association (dairy)
• Lone Star Milk Producers (dairy)

The term should be distinguished from collective farming, in which farmers pool nearly all resources, including labor, land, or produce itself. Some economists consider collective farming to be a type of cooperative farming.

Origins

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.

Also related are farmer's credit unions (and mutual farm insurance societies). They were created in the same periods, with the initial purpose to offer farm loans. Some became universal banks such as Crédit Agricole or Rabobank.

References

See also

• Winemaking cooperative