1
Cooperatives in the Food System
What is a cooperative?
How important are co-ops in the US food
system?
Do co-ops perform differently than investor-
owned firms?
Theoretical perspectives
Empirical perspectives
Challenges facing cooperatives and their
responses
Perspectives on Cooperatives
"I regard a farmer-owned, farmer-controlled cooperative as a
legal, practical means by which a group of self-selected, selfish
capitalists seek to improve their individual economic positions in
a competitive society." -- H.E. Babcock, "Cooperatives as the
Pacesetters in Agriculture." Journal of Farm Economics 17, no.
1 (1935): 153-56.
"The process of cooperation is as important as the result of
cooperation, and to strip farmers of the former will ultimately
strip them of the latter." -- Linda Kravitz. Who's Minding the
Co-op? A Report on Farmer Control of Farmer Cooperatives.
Washington: Agribusiness Accountability Project, 1974.
Docsity.com
