Cooperative Marketing by Farmers

Excerpt: Farmers' cooperative marketing associations have now gained a firm foothold in the United States and are showing a remarkably healthy growth. There are 8,300 of these associations today, with 2 ½ million farmer members, doing an annual business of over $2,000,000,000. Here is an account of this significant development. The author discusses the organization, nature, and functions of farmer cooperatives and devotes a good deal of attention to analyzing their legal status. He then summarizes the present position of the cooperatives handling each of seven major types of farm products—dairy products, poultry products, fruits and vegetables, grain, livestock, wool, and cotton. Even this, as he points out, does not tell the whole story, for there are now cooperatives in the United States handling many other farm products.