Thats not always true Alan. After all Justin lets me post here. Every rule needs an exception I guess.

You are the exception to the rule Dyre42. Watch it or else! ;-)

Those cooperatives need to be distinguished from others, though, including some in the same states, that are essentially just a funnel for federal subsidies. Pollan describes one such organization in the first section of his book – just a large, federally-backed commodity corn purchaser.

This program may be supported by some federal grant to the state, I don’t know. From what I’ve been told, the beauty of the tax credit method is (and MO has more than 60 of them) is that it doesn’t show up on the budget – so from a purely political view, it is easier to swallow than a pure subsidy. Of course, the transactional cost is increased and IS paid for by a direct grant from the state (thus DosPeros feeds litter and pays for Dog House).

I look forward to your future post on the subject.

That’s a topic of great interest to me as well. I’m not going to pretend to have a perfect understanding of the situation, but here’s what I know: several states (including Iowa, Minnesota, and Vermont) have made great strides in recent years developing their local food distribution systems, including organic systems, in part through farmer co-op development. Short story: I’m a big fan of these efforts, but it remains to be seen how competitive they will actually be with the big businesses. I think they’re already pretty successful by their own standards, however, and that’s a good thing.

Those cooperatives need to be distinguished from others, though, including some in the same states, that are essentially just a funnel for federal subsidies. Pollan describes one such organization in the first section of his book – just a large, federally-backed commodity corn purchaser. Those co-ops aren’t competing with big business; they’re a link in the chain.

I’ll make time for a full post on this topic in the future.

I’m a very big believer and supporter in local, organic farmers — from an economic & social/culture & political level. Farming cooperatives, I believe are an incredibly effective way to bring small organic farmers into “economies of scale” and make them competitive with big agri-business.

I’d be curious to get your take on the recent push in many rural states to incentivize (is that a word?) farming cooperatives and if they have been successful and to what degree if yes.