The 2023 National Council of Farmer Cooperatives was recently held in Orlando, Florida from February 8^th– February 10^th.  This year’s theme was “Strategy and Action: Thriving in a Disruptive Ag Landscape.” The event kicked off with opening remarks from Chuck Connor, President and CEO of National Council of Farmers, Jon Doggett, former CEO National Corn Growers Association, and Hunt Shipman, Principal and Director for Cornerstone Government Affairs.

Keeping with the theme, the group began the discussion with addressing a hot button issue— ‘How do we deal going forward?’ meaning how do we take the various disruptions from the past three years we’ve faced and are continuing to face and plunge forward.  “We have an obligation to turn people’s views around and get back to the times of being able to share the bread,” explained Jon Doggett.  “The political changes are going to come from elected officials in the primary races, and we need to start understanding that.”

The USDA has reported rural America is drastically shrinking, with much fewer farmers in their representative districts.  For example, in the state of Iowa in the 1960’s there were 6 representatives for the state, now there are only 4.  In order to stay relevant today, we must start by telling America what we’re doing for them! Mr. Shipman asked the audience if it’s really enough for America that at the end of the day everyone’s got to eat?  Knowing this is something we worry and think about is not enough to drive a vote, we must continue the dialogue and keep it in the minds of the people for a lengthy period of time.

A very valuable point was articulated by Mr. Doggett, “We can’t educate consumers, we market to them, so what are we doing for them? We must provide the information they’re looking for, as well as advice to navigate co-ops in farming.  We must quit thinking of labeling and bring in new people and perspectives, embracing where we are today.”

The panel concluded their session opener with the importance of making connections and understanding your audience, validating those connections to meet people where they’re at.  Shipman left the group with a very proactive thought, “Don’t try and fit in just to check a box, deal with the core issues that are coming at us, remain engaged at the highest levels and really get involved.”

This is very fitting for each of us.  There will also be a place to get involved and engaged to be proactive.  Let’s take the opportunity to reach out to our friends, neighbors, and colleagues to thrive in disruption.

As we are aware, cooperatives offer a tremendous amount of opportunities, while opening a door to vast networking and knowledge exchange among their members, stakeholders and even their customers.  Cooperatives agree to a set of principles, the first of which is “voluntary and open membership.” Through this cooperative principle, any individual willing to accept the responsibility of membership and who wishes to use the services of a cooperative are welcome to become a member and should be allowed to voluntarily join the cooperative.  The open membership principle can be contradictive to today’s corporate business practices as firms try to find the “best talent” to compete in their industry. If you or your company are finding yourselves in this situation, consider attending the workshop “Unleash the Potential of Cooperative Management” to gain a better understanding of how the cooperative principle of “voluntary and open membership” can become an advantage for yourself, your business, or your team. You will take away a set of tools to discover the untapped skills that exist within your organization and be able to invite your team members to contribute in new ways.  Please join us for this free workshop on Tuesday, October 18^th from 1:00- 2:00 p.m.  To register visit: go.osu.edu/potential. This course will be taught by Daniella Mostow.

Daniella is the founder of MightWe, a consulting firm that helps teams collaborate better even when the challenges are complex, and solutions are unclear. She leads teams through conversations to gain a deeper understanding of core opportunities and experiment with innovative solutions. MightWe is committed to supporting small businesses and worker cooperatives in order to strengthen local economies and create more opportunities for people to shape their futures.

Developing the cooperative economy in Central Appalachia is no easy task, but the CFAES Center for Cooperatives at Ohio State is working toward that goal with the Appalachia Cooperates Initiative. Shifting to virtual programming throughout the pandemic, the Center has been able to reach more cooperators across the Appalachian Region.

The Appalachia Cooperates Initiative (ACI) is an education and peer-learning network for community, business, and economic development practitioners interested in the cooperative model.

“Whether the model is used in food and agriculture, housing, workplace ownership, or other areas, cooperatives can help community members solve problems and build wealth locally,” said Hannah Scott, Program Manager for the CFAES Center for Cooperatives.

ACI programs develop awareness of the cooperative business model and share resources to help communities recognize and act on cooperative opportunities. Programs have featured guest speakers from Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives, a co-founder of a community-owned broadband cooperative, cooperative attorneys, and more.

Under the ACI, the center is also working to develop connections and relationships among cooperative practitioners. “Our ultimate goal is to facilitate joint cooperative development activities in Central Appalachia, allowing practitioners to better utilize existing resources,” Scott said. Creating community-based employment and supporting workplace democracy are some of the areas of focus for ACI.

Recently the Center developed an online page devoted to hosting recordings of ACI learning sessions. Cooperative Development Specialist Ryan Kline stated, “this new webpage is a great place for those looking to make change in the region through cooperation! From topics like the history of Appalachian cooperation to changemakers in rural broadband, our recordings can be instrumental for economic, community and cooperative developers to learn more about co-op development in the region.”

More information about the ACI and past program recordings are available  at go.osu.edu/appalachiacooperates .

October is National Co-op Month in the United States! The annual celebration is an opportunity to lift up the values and impact of the cooperative community. To celebrate this year, our team at the CFAES Center for Cooperatives is sharing resources for learning about the co-op model. This focus is fitting given that Co-op Principle 5: Education, Training and Information highlights the importance of life-long learning across the global co-op community.

The cooperative community’s diversity and innovation create seemingly endless opportunities to learn about how member-owned enterprises are solving problems and “building back better” in their communities.

Whether you’re new to cooperatives or a seasoned co-op developer, you’ll find unique stories about the cooperative business model in the co-op podcast playlist below!

• For ag and food enthusiasts
  • “Cooperative strength: Combining national scale with local community impact” from the Something Greater podcast by Land O’Lakes
  • “How a fishing co-op formed with friendship” from Meet the Co-op Farmers by the Australian Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals
  • “Narendra Varma of Our Table Cooperative” from Collab Farming by No-Till Market Garden Podcast

• For learning about workplace democracy through cooperation
  • “Worker Cooperatives – Widening Spheres of Democracy” from Upstream

• For global perspectives on cooperation
  • “India, Farming, and the Free Market” from Planet Money by NPR
  • “Scaling organic farming and building a cooperative in Kenya” from Profit Meets Impact

• For learning about new models of cooperative enterprise
  • “Multi-stakeholder co-ops: When are they the right fit?” from The Common Share by Co-operatives First
  • “Unions and Co-ops” from All Things Co-op from Democracy at Work

• For perspectives on policy initiatives to support cooperative growth
  • “Cooperatives with Jason Wiener” from This is What Democracy Looks Like by Democracy Policy Network

• For examples of how co-ops are helping address challenges with rural broadband access
  • “When Take Rates Take Off” from Co-ops Connect by Conexon

• For perspectives on empowering community members through cooperatives
  • “Dr. Jessica Gordon-Nembhard discusses how Co-ops are being used to ‘Build Back Better’” from Everything Co-op with Vernon Oakes
  • “Making Solar Power Accessible to Low-Income Members” from Along Those Lines by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association

September 21 at 10:30 a.m. in the Small Farms Center at the Ohio Farm Science Review. The Small Farms Center is located at the west end of Equipment Avenue.

We will be sharing info about the Youth Cooperative Leadership Experience Online. This is a resource featuring innovative and exciting ag co-op career content that teachers can easily build into classroom learning during the 2021 school year and beyond. The open-access format also allows students to visit the website outside of class to learn from leaders in the agricultural industry.

With funding from the Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation, The Hocking County Farm Bureau and Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) Center for Cooperatives partnered to create this online experience for high school students to discover and explore careers in agricultural cooperatives.

The virtual program is free and available to all educators and students, but was designed to speak the unique challenges students face in rural Appalachian counties.

If you are at the FSR on Tuesday morning, be sure to stop by to learn about the Youth Cooperative Leadership Experience Online and how it can be a first-step for your school ag program to explore forming a student-led cooperative.

For more information about the Farm Science Review, visit: https://fsr.osu.edu/home

The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) Center for Cooperatives has rolled out a new online platform for youth education about cooperatives and agricultural careers. Youth Cooperative Leadership Experience Online (YCLE Online) is the result of a collaboration between the Center for Cooperatives and the Hocking County Farm Bureau, who were awarded an Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation Youth Pathways Grant in 2019. The grant funds would provide Appalachian high school students an opportunity to discover and explore careers in agricultural cooperatives and build leadership skills in an immersive, in-person two-day experience. Students would visit Ohio State’s Columbus campus to experience college-style learning, discover educational and career paths in agriculture, connect with leaders and engage in hands-on leadership and team-building activities. The trip would also include tours of agricultural cooperative businesses in the state. When Covid-19 lockdowns made the in-person experience impossible, the Youth Cooperative Leadership Experience was transformed to a bigger, better and more impactful virtual experience!

The virtual experience website features innovative and exciting ag co-op career content that teachers can easily build into their classrooms to help inspire students to discover and explore careers in agricultural cooperatives. The virtual program materials target students in middle school through high school and can be incorporated into agriculture classrooms, 4-H or other youth activities, or accessed by individual students.

“I’m happy that we were able to collaborate with Ivory Harlow and the Hocking County Farm Bureau to move the YCLE to an online platform,” said Joy Bauman, Program Specialist for the CFAES Center for Cooperatives. “The Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation grant gives us the opportunity to reach even more students with cooperative education and information about agricultural careers.”

“The YCLE Online seeks to help youth see the many career paths available to them in Ohio’s food and agricultural sector, understand the opportunities for educational pathways to those careers, and begin building a network of leaders and educators to help them along those paths,” said Hannah Scott, Program Manager CFAES Center for Cooperatives.

Many will be the first generation in their family to pursue higher education. While the Youth Cooperative Leadership Experience Online aims to remove physical and psychological barriers to continuing education​, it also helps students to see that there are many careers and leadership roles in the agriculture industry that do not require post-secondary coursework.

The YCLE Online will be available broadly to any young person interested in exploring agricultural careers through the open access website where materials are housed. The project partners will also recruit teachers, youth agriculture advisors, and other educators to incorporate the learning materials into their classrooms and activities. The Youth Cooperative Leadership Experience will be provided free of charge because of the generosity of the Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation.

The virtual experience is available at go.osu.edu/YCLE. Educators can incorporate the videos, hands-on activities, and learning materials from YCLE Online directly into their classrooms or youth activities. Through the generosity of the OFBF Youth Pathways grant, educators can both access the free online materials and request hard copy workbooks and supplies for hands-on activities at no cost while supplies last.

The Youth Cooperative Leadership Experience encourages students to discover and explore careers in agricultural cooperatives and support industries. The goal of the program is to ignite career ideas, reveal pathways, and inspire student action.

Participants will have virtual Co-op tours and hear from leaders at Heritage Cooperative, Nationwide Insurance, and Casa Nueva – a worker-owned restaurant and cantina, as well as farmer co-op leaders.

There are hands-on Activities in STEM with OSU experts including tomato grafting and fruit DNA extraction, career exploration activities, and leadership activities.  Additionally, there is opportunity for virtual tours of Ohio State’s CFAES Campuses and the Ohio State University South Centers.

The Youth Cooperative Leadership Experience program is available now at go.osu.edu/YCLE. Educators can both access the free online materials and request hard copy workbooks and supplies for hands-on activities at no cost while supplies last.  Ag teachers can learn about the program and visit with Center for Cooperatives staff at the trade show during the Ohio Agriculture Educators summer conference.

Over the last year, team members with the CFAES Center for Cooperatives have collected, reviewed, and verified information from industry trade organizations, the Ohio Secretary of State, and other public sources to develop a census of almost 1,100 cooperative locations across the Buckeye state. From credit unions to food co-ops, Ohio is covered in new and established cooperatives that contribute to the state’s economy.  

In partnership with the CFAES Knowledge Exchange team at Ohio State, the data was built into an interactive map that will be available to the public. The Center is releasing a self-guided exploration of the cooperative economy that highlights the interactive map and the diversity of Ohio’s co-ops. The map will allow co-op leaders, community ownership advocates, policymakers, cooperative developers, and entrepreneurs to find cooperatives in their area and locate cooperative models to learn from as they develop new co-ops. The data will also create opportunities for the team at the Center for Cooperatives to conduct comparative historical analyses and other applied research on Ohio’s cooperative economy. 

Explore the map of Ohio’s Cooperatives here.

To build the cooperative database, Center staff gathered data from numerous public sources, including industry trade associations such as the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, the Ohio Credit Union League, and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, as well as federal and state sources including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Farm Credit Administration, and the Ohio Secretary of State, among others. Center staff verified each cooperative in the database by assessing whether the entity was mutually owned by multiple members, operated on a non-profit cooperative basis, or provided bulk purchasing on a cooperative basis. Center staff also verified whether each cooperative was still active, using public sources like websites, social media, and news articles.   

The project revealed the true diversity of cooperatives in Ohio. From breweries and laundries to financial services, agriculture, and housing, each cooperative plays an important role in the state’s cooperative community and economy.

Out of the 452 cooperatives headquartered in Ohio, 228 are credit unions. The figure below shows a breakdown of cooperatives headquartered in Ohio by sector. The 1,088 physical co-op locations included in the map of Ohio’s cooperatives include cooperatives headquartered in Ohio, branches of co-ops that are headquartered in Ohio, and branch locations in Ohio of co-ops not headquartered in Ohio. 

According to the National Cooperative Bank, of the largest 100 cooperatives in the U.S. in 2019, three were headquartered in Ohio, including United Producers, Inc. (#80) headquartered in Columbus, Heritage Cooperative (#83) headquartered in Delaware, and Buckeye Power, Inc. (#84) headquartered in Columbus. 

For Christmas morning, why not make a cinnamon roll recipe using some of our favorite co-op products, like King Arthur Flour, Land o’ Lakes Butter, and Pioneer Sugar.  Our staff member Joy makes this recipe she adapted from a King Arthur Baking Company recipe.  These soft cinnamon rolls can be made fresh or prepped ahead* and baked on Christmas morning.

Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients

Starter

5 tablespoons water

5 tablespoons whole milk

3 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon King Arthur bread flour

Dough

All of the starter (above)

4 cups + 2 tablespoons King Arthur Bread Flour

3 tablespoons nonfat dry milk

1 ¾ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon instant yeast

¾ cup lukewarm whole milk

2 large eggs

5 tablespoons unsalted Land O’ Lakes butter, melted

Filling

½ cup Pioneer white Sugar

¾ cup brown sugar, packed

4 teaspoons cinnamon

½ cup Land O’ Lakes unsalted butter, softened

Icing

3 cups confectioner’s sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons Land O’ Lakes unsalted butter, melted (or use salted butter and omit the ¼ teaspoon of salt)

¾ teaspoon vanilla extract

3-4 tablespoons whole milk or cream, enough to make a thick but spreadable frosting

Instructions

To make the starter: Combine all of the starter ingredients in a small saucepan, and whisk until no lumps remain.

Place the saucepan over medium heat, and cook the mixture, whisking constantly, until thick and the whisk leaves lines on the bottom of the pan. This will probably take only a minute or so. Remove from the heat and set it aside for several minutes.

To make the dough: Mix the slightly cooled starter with the remaining dough ingredients until everything comes together. Let the dough rest, covered, for 20 minutes; this will give the flour a chance to absorb the liquid, making it easier to knead.

After 20 minutes, knead the dough — by hand, mixer, or bread machine — to make a smooth, elastic, somewhat sticky dough.

Shape the dough into a ball, and let it rest in a lightly greased covered bowl for 60 to 90 minutes, until puffy but not necessarily doubled in bulk.

To make the filling: Combine the white sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon, mixing until the cinnamon is thoroughly distributed.

Gently deflate the risen dough, divide it in half, and working with one piece at a time, shape each piece into a rough 18” X 8” rectangle and spread with ¼ cup of the softened butter.

Sprinkle half the filling onto the rolled-out dough.

Starting with a long edge, roll the dough into a log. With the seam underneath, cut the log into 12 slices, 1 1/2″ each.

Repeat with the second piece of dough and the remaining filling.

Lightly grease a 9″ x 13″ pan. Space the rolls in the pan.  *If prepping the cinnamon rolls to bake later, at this point, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until 90 minutes before baking to allow the dough to come to room temperature and rise.

If planning to bake immediately, cover the pan and let the rolls rise for 45 to 60 minutes, until they’re crowding one another and are quite puffy.

While the rolls are rising, preheat the oven to 350°F with a rack in the bottom third of the oven.

Uncover the rolls, and bake them for 22 to 25 minutes, until they feel set. They might be just barely browned.  It’s better to under-bake these rolls than bake them too long. Their interior temperature at the center should be about 188°F.

While the rolls are baking, stir together the icing ingredients, adding enough of the milk to make a thick spreadable icing. The icing should be quite stiff, about the consistency of softened cream cheese.

Remove the rolls from the oven, and turn them out of the pan onto a rack. Spread them with the icing; it will partially melt into the rolls.

Serve the rolls warm. If you have any left over (you probably won’t) you can store completely cooled rolls for a couple of days at room temperature in a sealed container.