1. When a co-op does earn a p _ _ _ _ _at least some of that money is returned to member-owners. The idea is that the co-op was able to be profitable from the members and any excess profitability should be returned to those members. So a co-op has the right to keep some to build a pot for future investments for example. When there are p _ _ _ _ _ s to share, the co-op pays customers based on their activity with the co-op that year.
2. However, _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ n in the agrofood industry is one of the best strategies to help achieve economies of scale along agricultural value chains. The economic benefits of _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ n in agriculture from the small-scale farmers’ point of view are: reduction of purchasing costs of raw materials, greater purchasing power with large-scale distribution, intermediaries reduction in the distribution chain, know-how transmission, integration of managerial skills, disposal of larger amounts of capital to invest, products or services quality improvement, and finally, expansion of market opportunities.
3. Most customers that employees are going to interact with at the co-op are all four of those. They’re customers, patrons, _ _ n _ _ s and members.
4. Cooperative is a business that has three primary components. Its user-controlled, user owned, and benefits the user. And so those three things in conjunction make it unique, you can see _ e _ _ _ _ controlled, _ e _ _ _ _ -owned, _ e _ _ _ _ benefits.
5. They are costs associated with risk, the costs associated with organizing, there are costs associated with transportation of course. These transaction costs are not trivial so imagine if 20 _ _ _ _ _ _ e _ s have to contract individually to sell their grain with the processor, there’s a cost of doing that. There is a price discovery cost, how do we know what the market prices are, and each individual _ _ _ _ _ _ e _ has to do that separately. Now imagine they do that together they pool all their grain together and there’s one transaction going on, there’s one call to sell the grain, there is one cal to figure out what the price is going to be, and you can ship more effectively when you’re shipping a large amount of grain versus small amount of grains.
6. If you are a producer who’s raising livestock and you would buy feed from the co-op or you’re producing grain and need to purchase inputs or sell grain, as long as you have production at r _ _ _ you can be a member of the cooperative.
7. The members have ultimate control through the co-op through their membership _ h _ _ _ . When they become a member of a cooperative, I’m speaking specifically with grain and farm supply agricultural cooperatives, they become a member, they have that voting _ h _ _ _ . That voting _ h _ _ _ allows them to elect the board of directors. So ultimate control of the cooperative lies in the hands of the voting members.
8. They are c _ _ _ s associated with risk, the c _ _ _ s associated with organizing, there are c _ _ _ s associated with transportation of course. These transaction c _ _ _ s are not trivial so imagine if 20 producers s have to contract individually to sell their grain with the processor, there’s a c _ _ _ of doing that. There is a price discovery c _ _ _ , how do we know what the market prices are, and each individual producer has to do that separately. Now imagine they do that together they pool all their grain together and there’s one transaction going on, there’s one call to sell the grain, there is one call to figure out what the price is going to be, and you can ship more effectively when you’re shipping a large amount of grain versus small amount of grains.
9. Cooperatives are the most democratic form of corporation thanks to the concept known as one member-one v _ _ _ . One member-one v _ _ _ means that members of an agricultural cooperative have an equal say and that’s important to prevent situations where you have control in the hands of a very few.
10. The members have ultimate _ _ _ t _ _ _ through the co-op through their membership share. When they become a member of a cooperative, I’m speaking specifically with grain and farm supply agricultural cooperatives, they become a member, they have that voting share . That voting share allows them to elect the board of directors. So ultimate _ _ _ t _ _ _ of the cooperative lies in the hands of the voting members.
11. When we talk about the roles and responsibilities of someone who uses the cooperative, an agricultural producer, we tend to use four terms pretty interchangeably. The customer means I’m transacting, I’m buying and selling through the co-op. A patron means I’m getting the p _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ back through my use of the co-op in a year, I get allocated a part of the profits or a part of the savings. The owner part means that I have an equity stake.