Coops Work - So Why Aren't We Using Them More?

Doug O’Brian, Real Clear Markets - I grew up on a farm in Iowa, surrounded by cooperatives long before I understood what they were. We bought seed and fertilizer from co-ops. We sold our crops through them, and relied on a rural electric cooperative to power our home. Like millions of Americans, I was part of the cooperative economy without realizing it.

Today, as president and CEO of the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA), I see that same model not as a relic of rural America, but as one of the most underutilized tools we have to build a more resilient economy.

Cooperatives are simple in concept but powerful in impact: they are businesses owned and controlled by the people who use them. That means the profits and decision-making power stay with members and within communities. In an era marked by widening capital flight and economic dislocation, that structure matters more than ever.

The scale is already significant. More than one in three Americans is a member of a cooperative, including nearly 150 million credit union members along with 43 million members of electric cooperative. Yet despite this reach, awareness remains surprisingly low. Too few entrepreneurs, advisors, and policymakers fully understand how cooperatives can be deployed to meet today’s challenges: from access to affordable capital to broadband expansion to workforce empowerment.  That gap is a missed opportunity.