CO-OPERATION AND AGRI-BUSINESS EVOLUTION

Co-operatives in North America, developed to correct or off set real or imagined wrongs in the economic system within which agriculture over time became further involved, have remained largely rural. Where successful, co-operatives bridged the gap between a fundamentalist agricultural production industry that tended to look inwards to itself and a privately capitalised marketing industry that looked outwards towards metropolitan and overseas markets. In pioneer and pioneering environments where free enterprise agri-business became significantly involved in on-farm or on-ranch operations, co-operatives did not become im-portant as the services and attitudes of agri-business complemented rather than exploited the man on the land. In the more commercialised integrated agriculture of today, corporate agri-business has found an interest in greater involvement in farm operations: much of this comes from changes in technology that make off-farm purchases as important a component of the agricultural com-plex as off-farm sales of products. Thus, co-operatives have lost their unique “bridge” role, have problems themselves of identity and of their most desirable patterns of future development. But their competition-existing corporate agri-business and new entrants from the conglom-erate industrial giants-are not without their problems also. These are outlined as well as the issues co-operatives-and co-operative philosophers and promoters-must tackle if they are to remain successful market participants and have identifiable characteristics that reflect co- operative idealism. The unique member-client relationship the co-operative is based on should be exploited to maintain and expand these complementary and essential goals for continued farmers’business participation in the North American and world economies.