COOPERATIVES

 NCBA CLUSA -  The Year of Cooperatives comes at the right time. The U.S., along with the rest of the world, is facing new and accelerating dynamics that pose great opportunity, but also great risks. Fortunately, cooperatives are a community-driven, time-tested and shovel-ready solution to tackle many of today’s biggest challenges. As people-centered businesses that operate at the heart of their communities, co-ops are tools people have used for generations to participate in their economies and bring stability and resilience amid turbulent times. 

When the U.S. economy was shifting toward industrialism in the late 19th century, farmers looked to cooperatives to make sure they had access to markets and could own and control more of the value chain. The result is that most farmers now own and control some of the most critical businesses that determine their viability. In the 1930s, 90 percent of urban households had access to electricity while only 10 percent of farm households did. With a knowledge of the cooperative business model and in partnership with the federal government, within a generation 90 percent of rural Americans had access to the modern economy through electricity. And within the last 100 years, cooperative financial institutions, or credit unions, have burgeoned. Today, they count more than 140 million Americans in their ranks, ensuring that one in three people in the U.S. have access to affordable, reliable financial services.