Search

Editor's note: Eberly is with the U.S. General Services Administration and recently completed a detail to USDA to learn more about cooperatives; Barham is a local food systems specialist with [...]

Interest in local foods is continuing to build with every passing month. Households in many regions now enjoy multiple options for direct access to locally grown food via farmers markets, [...]

The state of efforts to organize more homecare cooperatives was the focus of a day-long forum at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., in March, sponsored by the Cooperative [...]

Cooperatives are businesses with a proven strategy for serving critical needs, building wealth, creating jobs and developing rural community infrastructure. Cooperative development centers provide expertise in launching cooperatively owned enterprises. [...]

Editor's Note: Ban is a cooperative development specialist with USDA Rural Development in Wisconsin; Harrington is a Wautoma, Wis.-based elder care specialist who is coordinating efforts in Wisconsin to address [...]

The article discusses the unintentional involvement of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) with worker cooperatives. While the USDA's efforts have historically focused on farmer-owned cooperatives, there has been a growing interest in supporting other types of cooperatives, including worker cooperatives. The article highlights the formation of a worker cooperative of home-based caregivers in rural Wisconsin as an example of this evolving support. It also mentions the development of support organizations for specific worker cooperative industry sectors, such as the Homecare Cooperative Initiative. The article concludes by discussing the advocacy and legislative efforts to tap into government resources to support worker cooperatives, including the recent allocation of $50 million towards creating an Employee Ownership Initiative within the US Department of Labor. [Extracted from the article]

Editor's note: Bau is a cooperative development specialist with USDA Rural Development, based in Wisconsin. Giszpenc is the executive director of the Cooperative Development Institute (CDI). Danforth is the director [...]

To support the continued formation and growth of cooperatives--and to promote greater co-op literacy--many existing co-op education publications need to be updated, and more 'mid-level' co-op education materials should be [...]

The article focuses on the lessons learned by producer-members from the dissolution of Producers and Buyers Cooperative in Wisconsin. It emphasizes the importance of raising sufficient capital prior to the launch of a cooperative. It highlights the significance of providing education, training and information to members.

The article focuses on a study sponsored by the Cooperative Foundation on co-op education materials available in the U.S., which suggests the need for updation of many existing co-op education publications and development of more mid-level co-op education materials. The study also emphasized on the information about internal capital accounts and the information on finance options for co-ops.

The article provides an overview of U.S. worker cooperatives in long term care. It cites the growing demand for long term care and addresses the supply of labor force in the industry. It gives information on various worker cooperatives in long term care including Cooperative Home Care Associates (CHCA) and Cooperative Care. It describes the dominant market structure for long term care in the U.S.

The article discusses the market opportunity of cooperative business like food hubs for producers through their coordination of aggregation, distribution and marketing services. Topics discussed, include the strive of food hubs to source their produce form local producers to distribute locally and regionally, the strive to give their consumers with high-quality products and services and how the cooperative help the food hubs succeed through supply-chain transparency.