farming cooperatives
Shared agricultural enterprises
Farming cooperatives are agricultural businesses owned and operated collectively by member farmers who share resources, equipment, or marketing efforts.
Members pool their buying power to purchase supplies at lower costs, or jointly sell their products for better prices than they could negotiate individually.
The farming cooperative negotiated grain contracts for its 200 member families.
Cooperatives range from small local groups sharing a tractor to large organizations processing and distributing crops nationwide.
- annual meetingsRecurring organizational gatherings
- bulk purchasingOrdering in large quantities
- grain elevatorTall crop storage facility
- board of directorsGoverning body of organization
- bylawsOrganization's internal regulations
rural development · collective bargaining · land trust · food security · democratic governance · profit-sharing · voting rights · mutual aid · rural community · decision-making processes · cost efficiency · member-owned · membership fees · community engagement · organic farming · seed bank · local markets · fair trade
farming cooperativescorporate farms
Company-owned agricultural operations
factory farms · plantation system · plantation agriculture · tenant farming · sharecropping
farming cooperativesindustrial agriculture
Large-scale mechanized farming
Monsanto · ADM · Tyson Foods · feedlots