[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 158 (Thursday, October 20, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6869-S6870]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       NATIONAL COOPERATIVE MONTH

    Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I wish to submit for the 
Record an article written by Scott Zimmerman, cooperatives specialist 
with the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union and published October 15, 2011, 
in the Wyoming Livestock Journal. The article's title is ``Cooperatives 
Continue to Shape the Landscape in Rural Wyoming.''
  Across the country, October is celebrated as National Cooperative 
Month. With the fall harvest season upon us, our Nation's farmers are 
seeing the fruits of their labors. Gov. Matt Mead has declared October 
Cooperative Month in my home State of Wyoming. In his article, Scott 
Zimmerman traces the history of cooperatives and explains how their 
founding principles continue to guide cooperatives today.
  As Mr. Zimmerman points out, cooperatives form the basis of life in 
many rural communities. Cooperatives have shaped the landscape of 
American agriculture and rural way of life. For example, their 
pioneering organization led to memberowned and operated Rural Electric 
Associations. These co-ops first brought electricity to many small 
Wyoming communities. Additionally, cooperatives help many small Wyoming 
farmers and ranchers keep their costs low by purchasing needed inputs 
such as fertilizer, seed, and fuel at a discount. They accomplish this 
by pooling their purchasing power and buying farm inputs with volume 
pricing, thus taking advantage of their collective economy of scale.
  The author also notes how cooperatives market their goods together as 
well. This allows buyers to source larger volumes of a product from a 
single seller, rather than attempting to procure a similar volume from 
many different sellers. This increased procurement efficiency allows 
buyers to offer higher prices to the co-op members than they would 
otherwise receive.
  American consumers also have reason to celebrate National Cooperative 
Month. By contributing to increased efficiency, both in the way farm 
inputs are purchased and outputs are sold, consumers as well as co-op 
members benefit. Cooperatives provide lower prices to the final 
consumer by keeping the cost to produce and market their goods and 
services down.
  Two of the founding principles of cooperatives are cooperation among 
cooperatives and commitment to their communities. I would like to 
acknowledge and recognize Scott Zimmerman and all co-op members who 
assist in bringing safe, wholesome, and affordable food to our tables 
in a spirit of cooperation and community involvement.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

     Cooperatives Continue to Shape the Landscape in Rural Wyoming

 (By Scott Zimmerman, Cooperatives Specialist, Rocky Mountain Farmers 
                                 Union)

       October is being celebrated across the U.S. as National 
     Cooperative Month, and Governor Matt Mead has signed a 
     proclamation declaring Cooperative Month in Wyoming as part 
     of this celebration. Here at Rocky Mountain Farmers Union and 
     our Cooperative Development Center we applaud the Governor's 
     action, and we join with him in saluting cooperatives 
     nationwide.
       To understand what cooperatives mean today, it helps to 
     understand the history of cooperatives. The cooperative 
     movement began in Europe in the 19th Century, not long after 
     the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The increasing 
     mechanization of the European economy transformed society. It 
     threatened the livelihoods of skilled workers and destroyed 
     businesses too small to compete with industrial giants. Labor 
     and social movements attempted to address the need for 
     change.
       The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers was formed in 
     Rochdale, England in 1844. Mechanization was replacing 
     skilled workers with unskilled labor. Weavers were being 
     replaced with machines that produced quantity without much 
     regard for quality. These tradesmen, driven into poverty by 
     industrialization, banded together to open their own store. 
     They designed the Rochdale Principles to govern their 
     business and they pooled their meager capital to stock their 
     store with simple necessities at affordable prices. They were 
     so successful that, in the next 10 years, more than 1,000 co-
     ops sprang up in Great Britain.
       Cooperatives worldwide still subscribe to the Rochdale 
     principles that guided these first cooperators to success. 
     There are seven original principles:
       1. Open, voluntary membership
       2. Democratic governance (one member, one vote)
       3. Members control capital and equity
       4. Autonomous, independent governance
       5. Education and training in cooperative principles
       6. Cooperation among cooperatives
       7. Commitment to their communities
       Agricultural cooperatives have played a huge role in 
     developing and sustaining local agriculture here in Wyoming 
     and across the West. Wyoming agriculture has created and 
     benefited from three general types of cooperative: service, 
     supply and marketing. Each type fills a different role in our 
     state.
       The service cooperative, as its name suggests, provides its 
     member owners with a service typically not available 
     otherwise. A good example of this type of cooperative is 
     member-owned Rural Electric Associations. Had it not been for 
     the vision and hard work of the founding members of these co-
     ops, rural Wyoming would have remained without electricity 
     many years longer. Co-ops emphasize benefits to members 
     rather than measuring their results in raw profits, so small 
     ``local'' electric utilities were able to address the need.
       The supply cooperative offers its members the opportunity 
     to buy inputs and raw materials at prices competitive with 
     the volume discounts offered to the industrial corporations 
     they must compete with. Typically the co-op can offer the 
     supply item at volume pricing based on the buying power of 
     the entire membership, and typically the coop will deliver to 
     small, independent operations. Many rural Wyoming 
     agricultural communities have been home to ``fuel and 
     supply'' cooperatives. These operations offered fuel, seed, 
     fertilizer and farm and ranch supplies to their members. 
     Cenex is a well-known example of this type of cooperative 
     that is still part of the Wyoming landscape.
       The marketing cooperative typically pools its members' 
     goods and offers them for direct sale to obtain the best 
     price. Grain or commodity marketing cooperatives fall into 
     this category, as well as the co-op food markets that benefit 
     both consumers and producers.
       Starting in the late 1970s, many states changed the legal 
     definition of ``cooperative,'' and a new kind of co-op 
     emerged. New-generation cooperatives in rural America adapt 
     traditional cooperative structures to the increasing need for 
     capitalization. Some states now allow capital investors to 
     participate as voting members. This kind of co-op often is an 
     agricultural processor adding value to a primary product. 
     Capitalized by investors and run democratically by members, 
     they might be producing ethanol from corn, pasta from durum 
     wheat or gourmet cheese from goat's milk. The highly 
     successful Mountain States Lamb Cooperative, headquartered in 
     Douglas, is an example of such a cooperative.
       Rocky Mountain Farmers Union takes cooperation as one of 
     its founding principles, and we have promoted cooperative 
     solutions

[[Page S6870]]

     to rural and agricultural challenges for more than 100 years. 
     Since 1991, our foundation has been a leader forming and 
     assisting cooperatives of all types. Our Cooperative 
     Development Center, created in 1996, has used funding from 
     Rural Cooperative Development Grants (RCDG) awarded each year 
     by USDA-Rural Development to support our cooperative 
     development work in Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming. In the 
     Center's 15 years we have helped design, develop, incorporate 
     and manage more than a hundred cooperatives, many of them, 
     like Mountain States, still thriving. We continue to seek out 
     and assist individuals and groups with ideas that may become 
     the next successful cooperative venture.
       As you can see, cooperatives have had a significant role in 
     shaping the Wyoming agricultural landscape. We celebrate that 
     role each year in October. RMFU and our Co-op Center will 
     ensure that the role of co-ops will be important for years to 
     come, and we will strive to enhance that role wherever 
     possible.

                          ____________________