INTRODUCTORY REMARKS: NEW VALUE-ADDED LIVESTOCK AND POULTRY INITIATIVES

Livestock Production/Industries,

Basics of farmer cooperatives

"February, 1972""Several methods of economic organization are used today in America. These are individually owned businesses, partnerships, investor-owned corporations, and user-owner corporations."--First paragraphRandall E. Torgerson (Department of Agricultural Economics, College of Agriculture ; University of Missouri -- Columbia

Farm cooperatives: Reaping a bigger share of the harvest

Photographs not included in Web versio

Evolution of Cooperative Thought, Theory, and Purpose

The evolution of agricultural cooperative thought, theory, and purpose in the United States is reviewed from the standpoint of the reemergence of interest in how cooperatives can provide some of the security and benefits that might be lost with gradual phasing out of federal government farm support programs. By accomplishing group action for self-help, the early development of cooperatives drew considerable attention from economists, social theorists, and politicians. Alternative schools of cooperative thought developed, but most proponents of cooperatives regarded them as having enormous potential to provide a public service role in building a more economically stable and democratic society This paper also surveys how cooperative theory was developed more rigorously in the post-WWII period. It has provided better analytical tools for understanding how and why cooperatives have changed in response to technological and economic developments, as well as to social trends, like individualism. Given the new perspectives on cooperative theory and the scope of changes in how cooperatives operate and are structured, cooperatives have even greater potential for coordinating self-help actions, but this potential needs the support of cooperative education services.Agribusiness,

Missouri directory of agricultural cooperatives

Cover title

Financial structure of local Missouri farm supply cooperatives

Includes bibliographical references

The Mission of the Agricultural Cooperative Service: Commitments, Crises, and Possible Futures

Public policy has encouraged services to the cooperative sector due to public goods that result when members use their cooperatives. Purveyors of public services to cooperatives have been affected by several crises and changes that have lessened resource availability. The Agricultural Cooperative Service-USDA, one of the primary service providers, has potential for expanding its cooperative development services to include nonfarm organizations in addition to its traditional farm clientele. Five options are offered for closer coordination between ACS and other public sector providers of services to cooperatively owned businesses