Rural

COOPERATIVES COOPERATIVES

Page 4

Sustaining Their Industry

USDA / Rural Development July/August 2010

Winning Communications

Page 18
By Dan Campbell, Editor

ew cooperatives last from one generation to

the next without a good communications

program — one that helps keep members

informed and actively involved in their coop. When most members look at their co-op

as “just another business” and are willing to let someone else

run it with little or no involvement of

the rank and file, their co-op is quite

likely heading for the rocks. Sure, not

everyone can serve on the board, but

every member should carefully read the

co-op’s publication and other

communications, attend member

meetings, volunteer for committees and

vote in every election.

A large portion of this issue of Rural

Cooperatives is devoted to cooperative

communications. Beginning on page 18,

we’ll take a look at some of the top

prize winners in the Cooperative

Communicators Association’s (CCA)

most recent communications contest.

Our hope is that this may help inspire

other co-ops to look at their own

communications program and consider

what they could be doing to improve it.

There is no one-size-fits-all pattern for co-op

communications. These efforts are as varied as co-ops are

themselves.

For a case in point, compare CHS Inc.’s first place winner

for co-op annual reports with a budget of more than $50,000

to Aurora Cooperative’s first place winner in the under-

$50,000 category. For CHS, producing an in-depth, 62-page

report is almost a year-round effort, produced primarily inhouse. Aurora, on the other hand, turns its report over

entirely to a public relations agency, which produces the 12-

page report in about a month. Both reports do a superb job

of highlighting their co-op’s performance in the previous

year, although the paths followed in producing the reports

are markedly different.

For yet another twist on the concept of an annual report,

we’ll look at CCA’s Publication of the Year winner, the

“Cooperative America” report published by Tennessee

Farmers Cooperative. This isn’t a traditional annual report

because it doesn’t report on the co-op’s financial performance

for the year. Instead, it is a strikingly effective look at the coop system of business and how it differs in so many respects

from the business practices that helped cause the nation’s

worst economic recession since the Great Depression.

Looking at the winning entries posted on CCA’s website

(www.communicators.coop) reveals an equally sharp contrast

in the type of regular member or

employee publications co-ops produce

to keep members informed. These

publications range from basic, twocolor newsletters to tabloid-size

newspapers and slick, four-color

magazines. Co-op websites are just as

varied, ranging from bare-bones sites to

elaborate, graphically sophisticated

websites. Likewise, while some co-ops

have already established a socialnetworking strategy, using vehicles such

as Facebook and You-Tube, others are

still assessing whether to enter this new

communications arena.

Probably the biggest

communications choice a co-op has to

make is when to hire a fulltime

communicator or to add an additional

communications staffer. In this issue

(page 28), we’ll look at two Midwest farmer co-ops that

recently hired their first fulltime communications staff

member and why they made the move. Some co-ops may

instead choose to use the services of a public relations agency

to gear up their communications. The important thing is:

communicate.

CCA — originally called the Cooperative Editors

Association — was formed 57 years ago, with USDA and

several of the major co-ops of the day as the driving forces

behind it. Then, as now, there were other journalism and

public relations societies that helped their members improve

their skills and products. But it was strongly felt that the coop business system is unique in so many ways, that the

industry needed its own organization to address the specific

communications needs of co-ops. Today, 300 members

strong, CCA is still fulfilling that mission at a time when the

need has never been greater to tell the co-op story. ■

2 July/August 2010 / Rural Cooperatives

Commentary

Communications: the critical link

F

Even the humble co-op t-shirt can carry an

important message, as does this model

from American Crystal Sugar Company

(also see page 27).
Features

Rural Cooperatives / July/August 2010 3

Volume 77, Number 4

July/August 2010

Rural Cooperatives (1088-8845) is

published bimonthly by USDA Rural

Development, 1400 Independence Ave.

SW, Stop 0705, Washington, DC. 20250-

0705.

The Secretary of Agriculture has

determined that publication of this

periodical is necessary in the transaction

of public business required by law of the

Department. Periodicals postage paid at

Washington, DC. and additional mailing

offices. Copies may be obtained from the

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Government Printing Office, Washington,

DC, 20402, at $23 per year. Postmaster:

send address change to: Rural

Cooperatives, USDA/RBS, Stop 3255,

Wash., DC 20250-3255.

Mention in Rural Cooperatives of

company and brand names does not

signify endorsement over other

companies’ products and services.

Unless otherwise stated, articles in this

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necessarily reflect those of USDA or its

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race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where applicable, sex, marital

status, familial status, parental status,

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information (Braille, large print, audiotape,

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To file a complaint of discrimination, write

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USDA is an equal opportunity provider

and employer.

Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture

Dallas Tonsager, Under Secretary,

USDA Rural Development

Dan Campbell, Editor

Stephen Hall / KOTA, Design

Have a cooperative-related question?

Call (202) 720-6483, or email:

coopinfo@wdc.usda.gov

This publication was printed with vegetable oil-based ink.

p.4 p. 14

04 Sustaining Their Industry

Sugar growers provide textbook example of how co-ops can help producers strengthen their

position

By Bruce J. Reynolds

10 Get Ready

Co-op Month is coming – what outreach effort will your co-op make?

14 50 Years At The Top

Founded to salvage blemished fruit, Tree Top today is industry leader for apple products

By Sharon Miracle

18 CCA Winners: Why We Compete

27 CCA Honors Go To: Krisle, Brooks, Dumont

28 Time To Upgrade Your Communications?

Many local co-ops have grown into the need for more professional communications efforts

34 An American Farmer In Afghanistan

Equity Livestock co-op member says volunteer stint in war-torn nation challenging, but also

rewarding

By George Roemer

36 Grow Food, Grow Hope

Local food, new skills sprout in Ohio community gardens

By Anne Todd

Departments

2 COMMENTARY

9 LEGAL CORNER

42 NEWSLINE

p. 18 p. 38

ON THE COVER: Sugarbeet growers in the Red River Valley created

one of the first new-generation co-ops when they bought American

Crystal Sugar Company. Other growers followed suit, and today

producers own all U.S. sugarbeet processing. Photo courtesy

American Crystal Sugar Company
By Bruce J. Reynolds

USDA Rural Development/Cooperative Programs

e-mail: bruce.reynolds@wdc.usda.gov

S. sugar growers have used various

cooperative organizational strategies to keep

their farming businesses competitive. As a

result of these strategic moves, they gradually

integrated their industry.

Grower cooperatives now control 100 percent of sugarbeet

refining. With the opening of a new refinery in 2011, the

cooperative share of refined cane sugar will be about 25

percent, so the total co-op share of U.S. refined sugar will be

about 50 percent. The different strategies these growers have

used are a textbook on cooperative organizational

alternatives.

The main difference for cooperative organization between

the sugarbeet and the cane sectors is the latter’s additional

stage of post-harvest processing before a second stage of

refining a consumer-ready product. Harvested cane is

delivered to local mills that process it into raw sugar. The

mills also provide marketing, selling raw sugar to refineries

(although the amount of marketing done by mills is

decreasing as growers assume more ownership of refining). In

contrast, harvested sugarbeets are delivered to a processing

plant where consumer-ready sugar is refined. Cooperative

development in the respective sugarbeet and cane sugar

sectors is reviewed below.

Sugarbeet co-ops: from bargaining to ownership

Sugarbeet cooperatives were initially organized as

bargaining associations in the 1920s. Collective bargaining is

attractive to growers to the extent that it achieves a higher

average price than if each grower negotiates individually.

Another goal of these bargaining cooperatives was to

establish sales contracts that paid growers premiums for beets

with higher sugar content than average. Negotiating

contracts that reward higher quality production has been a

benefit for the entire U.S. sugar industry by improving the

quality of sugarbeets over time.

Most sugar refining companies in the past typically owned

multiple plants, although the trend in recent years has been

to consolidate in fewer, but much larger, processing facilities.

In the early 1970s, one of the largest sugarbeet processors,

American Crystal Sugar Company, operated six plants, four

of which were in the Red River Valley of North Dakota and

Minnesota. While growers believed there were opportunities

for more plants and for commensurate expansion of

sugarbeet production, the company had no plans to expand

processing and was even talking about closing one of its

plants.

In 1971, the Red River Valley Sugar Beet Growers

4 July/August 2010 / Rural Cooperatives

Sustaining Their Industry

Sugar growers provide textbook example of how co-ops
Rural Cooperatives / July/August 2010 5

Association was concerned about

limited processing capacity and

developed a plan for purchasing

American Crystal. The

association’s members raised $20

million, which they accomplished

with investments of $100 per acre

of sugarbeet delivery

commitments. In return, these

growers received delivery rights,

which were transferrable in that

they could be sold to new

members.

By having a closed

membership, growers wanting

membership must purchase shares

of deliverable rights as they

become available from those

leaving the cooperative. This capitalization strategy became a

model for new generation cooperatives (NGCs).

With loans from the St. Paul Bank for Cooperatives, the

acquisition of American Crystal was completed in 1973.

Members from another bargaining association joined the

processing cooperative in 1975, while an American Crystal

plant in California was operated for non-members.

Demand for increased processing capacity led other

bargaining associations in the Red

River Valley to initiate vertical

integration strategies. The MinnDak Farmers Cooperative

organized for the purpose of

establishing a new plant in 1974.

The following year, the Southern

Minnesota Beet Sugar

Cooperative (SMBSC) established

a plant in Renville, Minn.

Grower ownership

movement goes west

After organization of

cooperative processing in the Red

River Valley in the 1970s,

bargaining associations and

sugarbeet processing companies

in several western states maintained their usual business

relationships. The first transition from bargaining to

ownership of processing in the West began in 1994 with the

organization the Snake River Sugar Co., a co-op formed by

members of bargaining associations in Idaho and Oregon. By

1997, the cooperative established ownership and control of

the Amalgamated Sugar Co.

After experiencing a major decline in sugar prices and the

position members for new opportunities

Sugarbeet grower bargaining associations

evolved into producer-ownership of processing

and marketing. Photos courtesy American Crystal

Sugar Company
6 July/August 2010 / Rural Cooperatives

closing of processing plants, two large

conversions of companies into

cooperatives occurred in 2002. The

Monitor and Michigan Sugar Cos. were

acquired by members of bargaining

associations for operating as a

cooperative, but retaining the name,

Michigan Sugar Co. In the same year,

members of bargaining associations in

Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and

Nebraska purchased six processing

plants of the Western Sugar Co.

Marketing agency-in-common

Most sugarbeet processing

companies operated multiple plants that

provided relatively large volumes of

sugar for sale. For Minn-Dak and

SMBSC, the marketing of sugar from a

single processing plant was a

disadvantage when dealing with large

retailers and food processors, who often

want to purchase relatively large

volumes.

Shortly after organizing, Minn-Dak

and SMBSC decided to combine their

marketing in a separate cooperative.

This organizational alternative is known

as a marketing agency-in-common

(MAC) and is a type of federated

cooperative where member cooperatives

share a single sales manager who

coordinates and consolidates the

commodity sales of member

cooperatives. These two processing

cooperatives and American Crystal

formed another MAC in 1979, Midwest

Agri-Commodities, for joint marketing

of beet pulp, molasses and other

byproducts to the livestock feed

industry.

Economies of size in marketing

sugar may provide more opportunities

in the future for sugar growers to join

or form MACs. But to take these steps,

cooperative members have to develop

trust in working with others outside

their own region.

After several years of positive results

from membership in the byproducts

MAC, American Crystal began to

coordinate sugar marketing with MinnDak and SMBSC. In 1993, the three

processing cooperatives formed United

Sugars Corporation, a MAC that is one

of the largest sugar marketing

businesses in the United States. It made

a significant expansion in 1999 when

the United States Sugar Corporation in

Florida, the largest U.S. sugarcane

producer and an operator of milling and

refining, joined the cooperative.

Sugar cane cooperatives

The first U.S. sugar cane mill

cooperatives began organizing in the

1930s. By 1971, there were 14

cooperative mills. All are located in

Florida, Louisiana and Texas. In

Florida, there are fewer sugar cane

producers, but they generally have

larger farms compared to Louisiana.

“Grower co-ops now control 100 percent of sugarbeet refining

and will soon control 25 percent of sugar cane refining.”

Fields of sugar cane flank the Imperial Sugar cane refining plant in Gramercy, La. Photos by Ed Lallo, courtesy Louisiana Sugar News
Rural Cooperatives / July/August 2010 7

The Sugar Cane Growers

Cooperative in Florida operates two

mills owned by about 50 growers.

There is also a relatively large milling

cooperative in Texas operated by the

Rio Grande Valley Sugar Growers Inc.

This cooperative has 126 members and

its mill produces about 160,000 tons of

raw sugar.

Louisiana sugar cane production has

consolidated in recent years into fewer,

larger units. As recently as the mid1990s, there were about 750 growers

and 18 mills, nine of them organized as

cooperatives. As of 2007, there are only

three cooperative mills in operation.

The function of mills in processing

the harvested cane has not changed

over the past 200 years. But marketing

raw sugar and the byproduct, blackstrap

molasses, have been coordinated and

integrated by the cooperatives during

the last 30 years. Each mill traditionally

did its own marketing, selling raw sugar

to a few large refineries and blackstrap

molasses through commodity brokers.

In 1975, nine cooperative mills

organized a marketing cooperative,

Louisiana Sugar Cane Products Inc.

(LSCPI), to function as a MAC for

selling raw sugar and byproducts.

LSCPI did not have much impact in

its first few years of operation, but by

having an organization, the cooperative

mills were able to move quickly in

buying a relatively small refinery that

had closed. A few years later, ownership

of the refinery proved to have even

more value when a large sugar refining

company wanted to buy it. In

negotiating terms for selling the

refinery, LSCPI obtained long-term

sales contracts for its members’ raw

sugar that captured substantial

premiums over the prices received by

the non-cooperative mills.

LSCPI also improved earnings on

blackstrap molasses. By having a much

larger supply than individual mills could

offer, LSCPI initiated direct sales to

large feed-ingredient buyers.

During the mid-1990s, four noncooperative mills sought membership in

LSCPI. With the addition of these

members, LSCPI increased its market

share to about half of Louisiana raw

sugar production. Consolidation of

milling in recent years has reduced its

current membership to seven mills,

three cooperatives and four noncooperatives. Yet, LSCPI’s market share

of the state’s raw sugar has grown to

about 75 percent.

Exiting of refinery companies

Concentration of cane sugar refining

has raised new challenges for

cooperative mills. With some

companies exiting the industry,

cooperative mills have increased their

vertical integration by having an

ownership stake in refining. The Tate

& Lyle firm sold its North American

refineries and the Domino brand to

Florida producers in 2001, with the

Construction progresses on the new Louisiana Sugar Refining plant in Gramercy, La.,

next door to the Imperial Sugar plant. The new plant is a joint venture of Louisiana

Sugar Growers, Cargill and Imperial Sugar.
8 July/August 2010 / Rural Cooperatives

Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of

Florida acquiring 39 percent ownership.

In 2009, LSCPI initiated a joint

venture to build and operate a new

refinery to replace an older one

operated by the Imperial Sugar Co.

When completed in early 2011, it will

be the largest refinery in the United

States. LSCPI will continue its byproduct sales and warehousing for its

member mills, but a new entity, Sugar

Growers and Refiners Inc. (SUGAR),

has direct grower membership. SUGAR

will hold one-third of the ownership in

the venture. The other two-thirds are

held in equal shares by the Imperial

Sugar Co. and by Cargill.

The members of SUGAR used the

new generation cooperative method of

capitalizing the venture. They

purchased “grower units” that represent

a delivery right for raw sugar. These

shares will receive premiums above the

prevailing market price paid to nonmember growers. When they leave

sugar cane farming, their grower units

will be sold to new members.

Positioned to meet

opportunities

Sugarbeet and sugar cane growers

have organized cooperatives to sustain

their industry. Growers vertically

integrated the U.S. sugar industry by

starting out with various types of local

cooperatives — bargaining, sugar cane

milling and MACs. These cooperatives

provided them with the organizational

and financial capacity to pursue

opportunities for ownership of

processing and refining.

At least three of the business

organization forms sugar growers used

may hold lessons for cooperative

development in other industries.

First, bargaining cooperatives played

an important part in the development

of the U.S. sugarbeet industry. These

associations initiated incentive

programs to reward production and

delivery of higher quality sugarbeets. By

providing more price stability,

bargaining cooperatives helped their

members maintain sugarbeet farming.

These organizations also provided a

coordinating mechanism for eventual

investment in the ownership of

processing plants.

In many other commodity

industries, bargaining cooperatives

continue to provide price discovery for

their members. Bargaining is not a

transitional form of organization if

specialization trumps vertical

integration. For example, the Rye Grass

Growers Cooperative (featured in the

Sept.-Oct. 2009 issue of Rural

Cooperatives, available online) negotiates

with several marketing firms, each

having a network of distribution

channels for merchandising. Grass seed

growers and merchants each have

different specializations that neither

side can easily acquire. In contrast,

when bargaining is focused on sales to

processing plants, the prospects for

vertical integration are often more

feasible.

Without membership in cooperatives, many growers individually

negotiate sales and forgo the gains from

collective bargaining. Opportunities for

growers to organize associations are in

many cases impeded by a need to have

bargaining regulations updated,

especially federal rules which were

enacted in 1967 as the Agricultural Fair

Practices Act.

Second, MACs are a type of

cooperative federation that combine the

sales of several organizations into a

single agency. The need for sugarbeet

growers to build their own processing

plant led Minn-Dak and SMBSC to

work together on marketing because of

the economies of size in negotiating

sales contracts.

When cooperatives in any type of

commodity industry feel comfortable

with their sales programs, they have

slight motivation to consolidate

marketing with other cooperatives. The

opportunity to test the value of MACs

when cooperatives have byproducts to

market can be a good way to get

started, as was the case for American

Crystal Sugar when it eventually

combined its sugar marketing with

Minn-Dak and SMBSC to form United

Sugars.

Third, the new generation co-op

model has had several antecedents, but

American Crystal Company became the

leading example for many Midwest

farmers who organized value-added

cooperatives during the past 25 years.

The acquisition of the American

Crystal was accomplished by having

growers purchase delivery

commitments, which served as both an

equity capital contribution and a way to

secure a loan by establishing a reliable

supply of sugarbeets over time.

Furthermore, members owned the

delivery commitments as transferrable

certificates, the value of which change

in relation to the financial prospects of

the cooperative.

The new generation co-op is a

significant departure from the

traditional cooperative method of

building equity capital from earnings on

member business and distributing it

back to members as allocated patronage

refunds. Sugarbeet growers have

incentives for leading the way to the

NGC approach because of the

inextricable link between their farm

products and processing.

As pointed out by American Crystal

CEO David Berg: “Without the

sugarbeet factory, the beet has no value

at all.” But the NGC model is relevant

for growers of all types of commodities,

even those — unlike sugarbeets — that

have more processing or other

marketing alternatives. A new

generation cooperative increases the

members’ sense of ownership of the

business and their long-term

commitment to its development.

U.S. sugar growers have used a

variety of cooperative organizational

entities and innovations in the

application of cooperative strategy.

Their experience is instructive for other

types of farmers, and even for others

who may benefit by organizing

cooperatives. The sugar growers’

history demonstrates that organizing

even a basic, local cooperative with

modest benefits positions members for

new opportunities or collective actions

to help keep them in business. ■
By Stephanie M. Smith,

Senior Legal Advisor for USDA Cooperative Programs

Editor’s note: This article provides a general overview of the

advantages of business succession planning and the impact on rural

communities if family-owned businesses fail to engage in succession

planning. A second article, which will appear in the next issue, will

probe into the legal and financial aspects of succession planning,

including how owners can enjoy deferred taxation as a benefit of

selling a family-owned business to its employees (which may include

family members).

usiness succession planning (“succession

planning,” hereafter) is an important

financial tool for the successful continuation

of family-owned businesses in rural

communities. Keeping these businesses

going — preferably under local ownership — is often critical

for the health of our rural communities. Locally owned

businesses tend to have a better feel for the pulse and needs

of the community and are usually more active in local civic

affairs than are absentee-owned businesses. Locally owned

businesses are also less likely to be closed or moved.

This most often becomes an issue when there is no other

family member available to assume — or interested in

assuming — control of the business. If the result is a closure

— be it a drugstore, barbershop, food store, movie theater or

any other local business — the community loses a local

source of supplies or services, and the town suffers a loss to

its tax base and economic/social vitality.

One of the best ways to prevent this from happening is to

groom employees as future owners. This may even involve

the formation of a small, worker-owned cooperative (see the

January-February 2009 issue of Rural Cooperatives for more

on this topic).

Two-part process

It is critical that rural business owners understand the twofold process of succession planning to include:

1. The transfer of ownership from a financial and legal

perspective, and

2. The transfer of skills to their employees.

When transferring ownership, family-owned business

owners should strive to ensure that the business will maintain

its current status of operation and its economic and social

value in the rural community. The business owner should

also ensure that experienced and capable employees will be

prepared to assume these roles upon the owner’s death,

retirement or withdrawal.

So, how does a family-business owner plan for a smooth

transition?

First, begin planning now, no matter what your age or

health. The Main Streets of rural America already have far

too many shuttered windows. With succession planning,

many of those businesses would likely still be operating today.

In some cases, they closed because the owner waited too long

to begin planning.

Second, work with local financial planners who not only

understand the tax implications that arise out of succession

planning, but who also realize the social implications of

maintaining the business in a manner that benefits the

community as a whole. Third, contact a local bank that may

offer financial products to assist in the transitioning process.

Some local municipal government offices may also offer help.

The Advantages:

Succession planning accelerates the transition of qualified

employees from individual contributors to managers and

leaders. Succession planning should:

• Prepare current employees to undertake key roles;

• Develop talent and long-term growth;

• Improve workforce capabilities and overall performance;

• Improve employee commitment and, therefore, retention;

• Meet the career-development requirements of existing

employees;

• Improve support to employees throughout their

employment;

• Counter the increasing difficulty of recruiting employees

externally;

• Focus on leadership continuity and improved knowledge

sharing;

• Provide more effective monitoring and tracking of

employee proficiency levels and skill gaps.

• If there are three or more employees interested in assuming

ownership as a group, make them aware of worker-owned

cooperatives.

The Fallout:

Without the implementation of a business succession plan,

Rural Cooperatives / July/August 2010 9

B

Legal Corner

Succession planning for family-owned

businesses is critical for rural America

continued on page 46
10 July/August 2010 / Rural Cooperatives

Get Ready October is Co-op Month —
t can be as simple as a

farm cooperative

member making a

classroom visit to talk

about why growers

unite in co-ops. Or it can be a retail

cooperative or credit union setting up a

month-long “What Is a Co-op?” display

or poster. Regardless of what route is

chosen, Co-op Month in October is a

time for all co-ops to try their hands at

co-op education.

The theme for this year’s Co-op

Month is: “Local. Trusted. Serving You:

Experience the Cooperative

Difference.” The theme underscores

that cooperatives are tied to their local

communities in ways that other

businesses are not, that they are owned

and controlled by the people who use

them and that they exist to serve their

members.

“Co-ops can be a key part of

building a resilient local economy and

can be trusted to benefit people in

difficult times,” says Paul Hazen,

president of the National Cooperative

Business Association, which spearheads

the annual observation of Co-op

Month. He adds that Co-op Month

2010 is also a chance to celebrate the

co-op business model’s contribution to

the economic recovery.

“The more people understand what

co-ops are all about, the more likely

they are to do business with, or even

join, a cooperative,” says Dallas

Tonsager, Under Secretary for USDA

Rural Development. “Co-ops have a

great story to tell, and we all have a role

in helping to tell it. I know how busy

co-op managers and directors are, but

this effort does not have to be a big

time-consumer.”

Especially in rural areas, the effort

can be as simple as calling or sending a

press release to local radio stations and

newspapers to let them know about Coop Month. Co-op leaders should also

let the media know they are available

for interviews about their co-op and its

importance to the members and the

community.

During interviews, a co-op

spokesperson may want to mention

some of the major challenges facing the

co-op, and the opportunities it sees

ahead. It is equally important to provide

the media with some national scope

about U.S. cooperatives and the role

they play in the national economy.

Sample talking points (see sidebar),

examples of press releases, newspaper

and magazine ads and many other Coop Month-related “tools” are available

on the National Co-op Month website

at: www.co-opmonth.coop. The

website and education tools being

offered have been greatly expanded in

recent years.

USDA Rural Development can

provide free co-op educational brochures and booklets for handouts. For

some ideas, visit: www. rurdev.usda.gov/

rbs/pub/cooprpts.htm. To order

publications, e-mail:

coopinfo@wdc.usda.gov, or call (202)

720-6483.

Open houses and tours

Many co-ops have found Co-op

Month open houses to be an effective

way to engage members and the public.

These events may include

demonstrations and tours of co-op

facilities or at a member’s farm. Some

co-ops hold related activities — such as

games, “moon bounces” for kids,

vendor exhibits, raffles, cookouts, etc.

— to boost interest in their open house.

“This can be a great way to make

some new friends for your co-op,”

Tonsager says. “You would be amazed at

how fascinated non-farm people are to

learn how livestock feed is made or to

watch a demonstration on the science of

fertilizer application and the technology

being used to reduce the impact of

farming on the environment.”

Electric co-ops and credit unions can

also hold open houses and use Co-op

Month envelope stuffers in their

mailings to members (indeed, the

planning committee suggests using

these stuffers throughout the year).

New envelope stuffers with messages

about co-op advantages can be

downloaded from: www.co-opmonth

.coop.

USDA will be sponsoring a Co-op

Month event at its headquarters in

Washington D.C. on Oct. 5. This will

include exhibits, talks about co-ops and

recent co-op study results, and

Rural Cooperatives / July/August 2010 11

what outreach effort will your co-op make?

The new Co-op Month poster (opposite page) can be downloaded from: www.co-opmonth.coop.
recognition of cooperatives in

various sectors that have contributed

to their communities and economy

in positive ways. The SeptemberOctober issue of USDA’s “Rural

Cooperatives” magazine will include

a special Co-op Month section

devoted to highlighting innovative

and noteworthy co-ops which were

selected for this recognition by

major national co-op organizations

and regional co-op development

centers.

Special focus Oct. 17-23

The National Co-op Month

Committee is asking cooperatives to

focus their Cooperative Month

activities, if possible, during the

week of October 17-23 to create a

special nationwide cooperative

awareness week within Co-op

Month. But if that timeframe isn’t

feasible, any time in October for an

event is still fine.

In addition to press releases, open

houses and classroom visits, here are

some other ideas your co-op may

consider:

• Write a letter to the editor about

co-ops. Letters and op-eds in local

newspapers are a good way to

provide information on the impact

cooperatives have on their

members, the community, the

marketplace and the economy.

• Contact your governor’s office and

request a state Co-op Month

Proclamation be issued (this is

often done by state co-op councils,

so check with them first);

• Produce a special Co-op Month

issue of your co-op newsletter.

Also add some Co-op Month

content to your website.

• Pick one of your members who

exemplifies co-op principles — or

in recognition for long-term

commitment to the co-op and

community — to receive a special

co-op spirit award (this can also be

part of your press release);

• Create a Co-op Month

advertisement or public service

announcement (or use one

downloaded from the Co-op

Month website) and place it with

your local media.

• Send a special Co-op Month email to members. This can include

the “A Day in the Life” booklet as

an attachment, or post it to your

website and e-mail members a link

to it. This award-winning

publication provides a colorful

look at the many ways in which

Americans rely on co-ops. It can

be downloaded from the Co-op

Month website.

• Promote year-around co-op

education by encouraging your

members to sign up for a free

electronic subscription to USDA’s

Rural Cooperatives magazine at:

www.rdlist.sc.egov.usda.gov/listserv

/mainservlet;

• Perform a community service

project or hold a fund raiser in

honor of Co-op Month. These

activities can range from cleaning

up a stretch of highway or a public

park to staging an event such as

the annual race in Washington,

D.C., held to raise money for coop development.

• Hold a drawing for a prize for a

co-op member or the general

public;

• Set up a Co-op Month banner at

your cooperative or a public

facility;

• Hold a workshop for members

and/or the general public on an

Key messages

for Co-op Month

Here are some key messages that have

been found to resonate with the media and

the public. They help achieve the goals of

Co-op Month, which are to raise public

awareness of cooperatives and celebrate

their accomplishments.

• There are more than 29,000 cooperative

businesses in the United States that

generate more than 2 million jobs and

create more than $74 billion in wages,

according to a study conducted by the

University of Wisconsin Center for

Cooperatives, with support from USDA

Rural Development.

• These cooperatives account for more

than $654 billion in revenue. Cooperatives

represent a strong business model and

greatly contribute to both the national and

local economies.

• Studies show that consumers want to do

business with companies that share their

values, making today’s environment ideal

for cooperatives and their commitment to

the communities in which their members

live and work.

• Co-ops don’t have to answer to outside

shareholders; their goal is to meet their

members’ needs.

• Co-ops represent democracy in action,

with control exercised by a board of

directors elected from the ranks of

members; the board hires and directs

management and is ultimately responsible

to the members;

• Cooperatives generate jobs in their

communities, keep profits local and pay

local taxes to help support community

services. Cooperatives often take part in

community improvement programs,

ensuring that everyone has an

opportunity to benefit from the

cooperative experience.

To better “bring home” these messages,

gather additional data about the role and

power of co-ops in your state, region or

community. ■

12 July/August 2010 / Rural Cooperatives
Rural Cooperatives / July/August 2010 13

important topic for your co-op. For

example, electric co-ops could hold a

workshop on energy conservation in

the home and address what the co-op

is doing to promote renewable

energy. University and Extension staff

may also be available to make

presentations;

• Hold a Co-op Month breakfast,

luncheon or dinner for members

and/or community leaders, during

which a co-op presentation should be

made.

• Produce a simple, 30-second video to

post on the Co-op Month YouTube

channel that highlights your members

and what they love about their co-op.

“All of these types of activities can be

a catalyst to help people more fully

understand cooperatives. One goal

should be to show that co-ops are

people-oriented organizations operating

on different principles from other

businesses,” says NCBA’s Hazen.

“These types of promotions will be

taking place all across the nation,

organized by people directly or

indirectly affiliated with cooperatives.”

Like co-ops themselves, this annual

observation is a do-it-yourself effort.

Don’t be a free rider! ■

Pictures, please

Please send us photos of your Coop Month activity or event for possible

publication in a future issue of Rural

Cooperatives. In addition to gaining

recognition for your co-op’s efforts, it

will help provide ideas for other coops for next year’s event. Also

include a photo caption. We will

credit the co-op and photographer.

Photos should be of print

quality. A jpg file of about 300 dpi

(dots per inch) at about four

inches wide is the minimum

resolution of a photo for the print

media. (Note: most digital cameras of five megapixels or so

can take print-quality photos, but use the high-resolution

setting. Photos taken on the low- or medium-resolution

setting may look fine on your computer and website, but

they are rarely sufficient for publication. Even if you are

shooting a photo intended for your website, you never

know when you may later want to use it for a brochure or

for the media. So, a good rule of thumb: never use the lowresolution setting.)

E-mails photos to: coopinfo@wdc.usda.gov. ■

This team competed in last year’s

race for Cooperative Development,

held near Washington, D.C., during

Co-op Month.
14 July/August 2010 / Rural Cooperatives

Tree Top apple juice and other fruit products provide a value-added alternative for growers’ processing-grade fruit. The

co-op has helped to eliminate the massive waste of perfectly good, but slightly blemished fruit, mountains of which were

once dumped, as seen here in the 1950s. Photos courtesy Tree Top

Founded to salvage blemished fruit,

Tree Top today is industry leader for apple products

50 Years

at the Top
Rural Cooperatives / July/August 2010 15

By Sharon Miracle,

Communications Manager

Tree Top Inc.

smiracle@treetop.com

ver a half a century ago, Bill Charbonneau,

his wife and two sons moved to Washington’s

Yakima Valley from Southern California.

There, he purchased a small apple-processing

plant on Produce Row in Selah and he set

out to develop a quality brand of apple juice. This small

move would soon have huge ramifications for the entire apple

industry of the Northwest.

Charbonneau’s office was located in the plant so that he

could personally oversee juice production. The apples were

pressed and the juice was stored in 5,000-gallon holding

tanks. Every time a batch of apples was pressed, a sample was

brought to Charbonneau to taste. If the juice did not meet

his approval, the entire 5,000-gallon tank would be poured

down the drain.

Charbonneau held a contest among his employees to

choose a brand name for his product. “Tree Top” was the

winning entry, it being widely believed in those days that the

very best quality fruit grew at the top of the trees. The

original product line included three single-strength apple

juices and three sizes of apple cider (which is tarter than juice

because of the different apples used in the blend).

The region’s juice industry was small in those days, but

there was a desperate need to develop it further to help

counter the tremendous losses growers were suffering on

their blemished fruit. Although still delicious and healthy to

eat, there was simply no market for blemished apples. In

some years, the losses were tremendous.

In 1950, Life magazine ran a double-page photo showing

5,000 railway cars filled with Washington fruit being dumped

into the Columbia River because there was no processor to

handle it. As late as 1960, many growers were paying to have

their fruit dumped or buried in the canyons and rivers of the

state. The fortunate ones were selling their off-grade fruit for

a shaky $5 a ton.

Co-op formed to stop waste

In a bold bid to turn this situation around, a handful of

fruit growers formed a cooperative that purchased Tree Top

from Charbonneau in 1960. In just the first 20 years of

operation as a co-op, Tree Top generated in excess of $85

million for its members by transforming what had been a

waste product into premium juices, apple sauce and other

delicious food products.

Tree Top is celebrating its 50th anniversary as a co-op that

today has just over 1,000 members who grow fruit

throughout the Pacific Northwest. Their co-op rings up $359

million in annual gross sales. In addition to the fruit products

it markets to consumers, the co-op is also one of the world’s

leading suppliers of fruit-based ingredients to food

manufacturers.

Tree Top processes nearly 300,000 tons of apples and

pears each year, with about one-third of that crop used for

premium juices that are marketed primarily in the West and

Midwest. The co-op has been a major innovator in the fruit

industry, pioneering the production of frozen apple juice

concentrate, among other processed products.

It is also the world’s largest producer of dried-apple

products, which can be found in the nation’s top brands of

cereals, snacks and bakery goods. Tree Top’s food laboratories

contain the most sophisticated equipment available for testing

juice quality, and it has the apple-juice industry’s only trained

taste-profile panel.

“We are thrilled to be celebrating 50 years of playing an

important role in our Northwest economy and look forward

to celebrating this milestone with our grower owners,

employees, and our valued customers, and community,” says

Tree Top President and CEO Tom Stokes. “Our growerowner relationships are the backbone of our business, making

it possible for us to produce the best quality apple juice and

products.”

The celebration began in May and runs through October

2010, with events being held from the heart of Washington’s

apple country to The Big Apple (New York City). As the

company marks its half-century milestone, it remains

dedicated to the tradition of quality established by

Charbonneau, Stokes says.

Success tied to

establishing brand

Tree Top first began producing frozen apple juice

concentrate in 1963, which was developed to meet the

demand for a juice that could be economically shipped to any

market around the nation. First, however, the company had

to sell consumers on the idea of frozen apple juice, as well as

sell them on the Tree Top brand.

In 1968, in addition to juicing apples, Tree Top began to

slice them. With two plants now specializing in dried-apple

products, Tree Top has become the largest supplier of dried
16 July/August 2010 / Rural Cooperatives

apple products in the world. Dried fruits are mainly

marketed for food ingredient use. Tree Top’s dried- and lowmoisture apples find their way into the nation’s top brands of

cereals, breakfast pastries, cake mixes and snacks.

Tree Top introduced its unfiltered apple juice in 1970 to

answer consumer demand for “natural” foods. Tree Top also

began marketing frozen-concentrate cider that year.

In 1976, Tree Top introduced pear-apple and pear-grape

pure fruit blends to provide its members with an outlet for

their processing pears. The co-op continues to use pears in

many of its juice blends. In this way, Tree Top succeeded in

placing a sales value on processing-grade pears, again

creating a continued market value for more of its growers’

fruit.

Three Apple Blend juice was introduced to the

marketplace in 1998 and remains Tree Top’s premium juice

1960 Tree Top established as a co-op; first-year sales: $1.7 million.

1963 First company to produce and market frozen-concentrate apple juice.

1968 Expands into the food ingredient business, drying apples at

Wenatchee.

1975 Wenatchee Plant rebuilt after it was destroyed by fire.

1976 Introduces pear-apple and pear-grape juice blends.

1980 Expands Cashmere plant; Mount St. Helens erupts.

1983 Large food conglomerates enter the apple juice market.

1984 Sales for fiscal year hit $225.4 million.

1985 New cooperative equity structure adopted. Completes new Research

and Development Center.

1986 Alar receives national media attention, hurting sales.

1987 Acquires Valley Evaporated Co. Inc. New logo design adopted.

1988 Begins co-packing for Japanese market. Purchases U.S. Grape.

1995 Partners with Plumlife Co. to produce a fat replacer: Just Like

Shortening (JLS), a dried-powder made from fruit that can replace

most of the fat in food products. Purchases a plant in Rialto, Calif.

Purchases Sun Ridge Foods of Sunnyside, Wash.

1996 Tree Top restructures into separate divisions to address unique

marketplace needs of Ingredient, Food Service and Consumer

Packaged Goods.

1998 Three Apple Blend juice introduced in the Pacific Northwest. Apple

sauce packaged in plastic containers.

1999 Purchases Seneca Foods’ Prosser plant and sauce label; Acquires

Watermill Foods in Milton-Freewater, Ore. Acquires Vacu-Dry

trademark and apple-based industrial ingredients business.

2000 Tree Top qualifies in California for USDA’s Special Supplemental

Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC).

2001 Tree Top Fresh Apple Slices debut.

2002 Consolidation of large retail grocery chains and increased emphasis

on “private label” products challenges retail juice sales status quo.

2003 Tree Top Flat Fruit introduced.

2004 Tree Top leads in frozen, dark-sweet cherries for yogurts and other

foods.

2006 New Fresh Slice plant opens on Tree Top’s Selah campus.

2007 Co-op receives special award from Pacific Power for leadership in

energy efficiency.

2008 Cashmere processing facility closes due to unprofitable market for

apple juice concentrate. “Trim” launched as Tree Top's first functional

beverage to help with weight management. Purchases Sabroso Co. of

Medford, Ore., in order to expand Tree Top’s fruit-based product

offerings with purees, nectars, soft fruits and berries.

2009 Plant in Rialto, Calif., closed due to significant decline in client bottling

needs and under-used plant capacity; New grower-owner contracts

set the amount of tons of apples and pears to be delivered and

accepted, equal to the market rights owned by the grower.

2010 Tree Top celebrates 50th Anniversary.

Tree Top Milestones
Rural Cooperatives / July/August 2010 17

offering. A state-of-the-art processing facility was constructed

on the co-op’s Selah campus in 2006 to handle the booming

business of providing sliced apple snacks to the food- service

industry.

Tree Top doesn’t just purchase processor-grade fruit; it

also purchases higher quality fruit if needed to keep pace with

product demand.

Health researchers continually find more health benefits

associated with apples. Several studies suggest apple products

and/or apples may provide a “whole-body” health benefit.

Additionally, apple sauce and juice provide a natural sugar

substitute and can be used in place of oil or butter in most

baked goods to cut back on fat and calories.

Co-op expands via acquisitions

Since the late 1980s, the co-op has acquired several other

fruit-processors and brands, including Valley Evaporated Co.,

Sun Ridge Foods, Seneca Foods Prosser Plant and sauce label

division, Watermill Foods and, most recently, the Sabroso

Co. of Medford, Ore. These acquisitions gave Tree Top the

ability to offer the widest array of fruit-based products and

ingredients to retail markets, the food service industry and to

food manufacturers.

Tree Top now operates seven production plants

strategically located near the fruit sources. The four

Washington plants are in Selah, Cashmere, Wenatchee and

Prosser. It also operates two Oregon plants — in Medford

and Woodburn — as well as one plant in Oxnard, Calif.

Dealing with natural disasters is an unfortunate part of

agriculture, but in 1980, it wasn’t a flood or drought that the

co-op had to deal with, but rather the eruption of Mount St.

Helens. When the volcano blew its top, 250 tons of ash fell

on Tree Top’s headquarters in Selah. The town’s main street

was piled high with ash, which had to be dealt like a major

snow-removal operation.

There was uncertainty about health concerns related to

breathing the ash, which wreaked havoc on air filters and

caused operations to cease for a time. Growers in the region

also experienced uncertainty and had to engage in clean-up

efforts. On the bright side, the soil of the region benefits

from the volcanic ash, and ultimately it is one of the reasons

the Pacific Northwest grows such superb apples.

Like all farmers and their co-ops, Tree Top has had to

overcome many other challenges in the past 50 years. In the

late-1980s, the scare over the use of Alar on apples caused

sales to drop. While scientific evidence never

proved a connection between the chemical and

cancer in humans, the manufacturer voluntarily

pulled it from the market shortly after the

national attention began. Tree Top had

voluntarily chosen to refuse (and segregate) fruit

sprayed with Alar for several years before the

national controversy. Still, the entire industry

suffered for a time.

In the 2000s, a flood of foreign apple

concentrate caused the co-op to make some

major changes in its processing and marketing

strategy.

Tree Top has met these and other

challengers by constantly researching and

introducing new products, while fruit-processing

plants have been acquired, closed or modified to

meet the needs of the evolving marketplace.

“Our little co-op has grown

considerably since 1960, thanks

largely to the small-town values and

work ethics of our growers and

employees that have been a part of

our culture since the beginning,”

says CEO Stokes. “We are pleased

to now be recognized as a pacesetter

in the fruit-processing industry and

a premium brand that offers value

to our customers.” ■

Fresh apple slices, apple sauce and dried

apples (for the cereal and bakery industries)

are just some of the non-juice products Tree Top produces. Opposite page:

an anniversary banner adorns the co-op’s headquarters in Selah, Wash.
18 July/August 2010 / Rural Cooperatives

Year-to-year comparison failed to tell story,

so CHS annual report provides perspective

By Dan Campbell, editor

o doubt about it, 2008

was a hard act to follow

for CHS Inc. Even if

the economic recession

hadn’t cast a shadow

over 2009, it would have been hard for

CHS Inc. to match the record-breaking

results it enjoyed in 2008.

So when she went to work on the coop’s 2009 annual report, one of CHS

Communications Director Lani Jordan’s

biggest challenges was to come up with

a theme that reflected the drastic

change in financial results while providing some much-needed perspective

on the company’s still-solid 2009

performance beyond a simple

comparison of the two years.

Net income of $803 million in 2008

dropped to $381 million in 2009. But

considering the historic plunge the U.S.

economy had suffered, many businesses

that were struggling just to limit the red

ink in 2009 would have more than

welcomed such an outcome. Indeed, it

was the fourth best annual income

recorded in the co-op’s nearly 80-year

history.

Hence, “Perspective” became the

theme for the 1st place winner in CCA’s

highly competitive “Annual Reports,

$50,000 budget and above” category.

“When we wrapped up fiscal 2008,

the world was catching its breath as

Good journalism and public relations are more art

form than science, and need regular care and

nourishment. One of the most important ways its

practitioners improve their craft — whether they work for newspapers, magazines,

trade journals, ad agencies, educational/association publications, broadcast media, etc. —

is through the use of competitions that provide feedback from unbiased judges.

For more than half a century, the Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA) has

been helping its members hone their skills with its annual communications contest. This

year, 662 entries were judged in four contest areas: writing, publications, photography

and programs/projects. On the following pages, we’ll look at a small sampling of the

first-place award winners.

Regardless of whether an entry earns a ribbon, every co-op communicator benefits

from the judges’ comments and from the self-evaluation they engage in when reviewing

their work from the prior year to decide what to enter. Ultimately, the real winners are

members and employees, for whom communications is the lifeblood of the co-op.

Why we compete

Winning Communications
Rural Cooperatives / July/August 2010 19

prices for energy, grain and crop

nutrients — commodities that make up

the core of our business — reached

unprecedented heights,” CEO John

Johnson and Chairman Michael Toelle

wrote in their letter near the start of the

62-page report. They go on to

reference the drastic change in the 2009

marketplace and a 53-percent drop in

net income. However, they continue,

“...we achieved marks ahead of our own

projections in an environment that

challenged industries, economies and

consumers across the board.” Indeed,

they note that several divisions had

their best or second best performances

ever in 2009.

Bottom line: the co-op had a pretty

good run in 2009, especially given

market conditions.

The game plan

The 2009 annual report was the 20th

one Jordan has produced for CHS. If

she doesn’t quite have it down to a

science, she at least goes into the

project with a tried-and-true road map

of how to go about it and knowing

when the various pieces need to be

completed.

Producing a quality annual report

like CHS’ on time is not something you

start two or three months prior to your

annual meeting, she stresses. “It is

virtually a year-around job,” Jordan

says. “When you finish one, it’s just

The cover and two inside spreads from CHS’ 2009 annual report.

Many of the subjects included in the annual report will also

appear in feature articles in the co-op’s member magazine.

“It is virtually a year-around

job. When you finish one, it’s just

about time to start the next.”
20 July/August 2010 / Rural Cooperatives

about time to start the next.” And

unlike your co-op magazine or

newsletter — which can sometimes be a

week or two late without anyone being

forced to walk the plank — there is no

such leeway on the deadline for an

annual report, Jordan notes.

Virtually all co-ops strive to have

their annual report in members’ hands

prior to, or at, their annual meeting.

Because CHS offers a relatively small

amount of publicly traded non-voting,

preferred stock on the NASDAQ

exchange, it must conform to Securities

and Exchange Commission (SEC)

regulations that require its annual 10K

report to be filed by mid-November, a

few weeks before the co-op’s annual

meeting in early December.

As a federated co-op, CHS members

are primarily local grain and farm

supply co-ops located across the nation.

Each of these co-ops receives two

copies of the report, intended for the

general manager and board chairman,

with more copies available on request.

The annual report is much more

than a report to members. It is also a

major corporate image piece used for

government and public relations,

employee recruitment and in some

marketing efforts. Copies are circulated

to important customers, lenders, the

media and government officials.

Further, the work that goes into

producing the report will also yield

more in-depth feature articles for the

co-op’s member magazine and videos

for its website. “It’s a real workhorse for

us,” Jordan says.

Road trip

The CHS annual report is produced

“journalistically,” Jordan says. No stock

photos or professional models are used.

The focus is on real-life success stories

that demonstrate key accomplishments

or progress toward achieving the coop’s goals.

She and CHS staff photographer

David Lundquist (the CCA photographer of the year in 2010 and a

frequent winner of the honor) typically

visit five locations around the country

— and, in recent years, internationally

— selected because they demonstrate

accomplishments in one of the co-op’s

core business areas (energy, crop inputs,

grain marketing and processing and

business services). Jordan acts as

reporter and typically shoots the action

or b-roll video footage, while Lundquist

takes the still photos, switching to

videographer when shooting an

interview Jordan is conducting. This

year they made their first road trip in

late June and plan to have finished the

trips by early October.

The annual report is also posted on

the Internet and includes links to videos

and interviews for those interested in

learning more than can be included in

the brief write-ups contained in the

hard-copy report.

But the task begins long before that

first road trip. By late February, talks

are already being held with management and key employees about the

outlook for the year ahead and areas

that are likely to deserve special

attention in the report. This leads to

brainstorming for a theme.

During the summer, a written survey

is sent to about 40 business unit leaders

to gather highlights. Jordan says she

enjoys a great working relationship with

the co-op’s accounting team, which

provides the content for the financial

pages.

“We are fortunate that our people

get excited, and are honored, when

selected to participate in the annual

report,” Jordan says.

In early August, she sits down with

senior leadership to discuss the overall

tone for the report and how it will

reflect the theme. Soon after that,

Jordan begins work on the allimportant opening letter to the

members from the CEO and chairman,

as well as ideas for their speeches at the

annual meeting. The objective of the

opening letter, she says, is candor and

transparency for the year just ended, as

well as a focus on the CHS vision,

mission, values and strategic direction.

Assist from PR agency

The co-op’s long-standing public

relations agency, Colle + McVoy of

Minneapolis, provides creative services,

such as layout and design, and does

some of the writing for the report. The

PR firm and printer are brought into

the planning process quite early. The

designer will typically present several

design concepts, and the printer is often

able to make money-saving suggestions

when these are reviewed.

The report is usually on press by

mid-November, with a press run of

17,000. The advent of the Internet and

easy availability of the report online

have cut down on the need for a larger

press run. As a result, the budget for the

report has basically been flat for the

past 10 years, Jordan says.

“Like children, each report is

different and has its own personality,”

Jordan says. “There is usually some

last-minute event or issue to deal with,

but the basic elements remain the same

from year to year.”

The biggest lesson she has learned

after two decades of doing the job: “You

have to work based on a firm schedule.

Structure it backwards from the day you

need it. Be flexible, but do what you

have to in order to keep it on track.” ■

Winning Communications
Rural Cooperatives / July/August 2010 21

ad news can often lead

to good ideas. That’s

the case with Tennessee

Farmers Cooperative’s

(TFC) 2009 annual

report/company brochure that recently

won “Publication of the Year” honors

from the Cooperative Communicators

Association.

All of the “wrong” things happening

within some sectors of corporate

America over the past few years have

given member-owned organizations

such as TFC an opportunity to tell

what’s “right” with cooperative

America. This concept inspired the

theme of the publication, produced to

coincide with the

2009 annual

meeting of TFC, a

farm supply

cooperative

headquartered in

LaVergne, Tenn.

This 34-page

brochure differentiates the solid business principles of

cooperatives from risky business

practices.

“The ‘bailout’ phrase is actually what

sparked this entire publication,” says

Allison Morgan, TFC’s Communications Department manager. “In

brainstorming for a theme, we started

with a play on words — ‘bale out’ —

illustrated by a photo of a farmer baling

hay.” From that initial idea, Morgan

says the communications team kept

brainstorming about ways to

dramatically show the positive business

ethics and practices of cooperatives.

For example, a co-op bonus check is

‘Cooperative America’ theme inspires TFC’s Publication of the Year winner

Tennessee Farmers

Cooperative used this

special report to

contrast co-op

business principles to

risky business

practices.
a patronage refund sent to co-op

members. In this brochure, “Wall

Street” is a rock fence on a beef cattle

farm and “stimulus package” is a bag of

co-op plant food being used by a

college horticulture class.

“Today’s cooperatives are living

proof that our form of business is viable

and vital,” the publication’s introductory page states.

Although not officially an annual

report (because financials are not

included), the “Cooperative America”

publication was produced by TFC to

share highlights of the 2009 fiscal year.

TFC produces a similar piece each year

that reflects the cooperative’s annual

meeting theme. T he brochure is

distributed at the annual meeting in late

November, then used year-round as an

informational piece.

All of the copy, design and

photographs, except for occasional

stock images, are produced in-house by

TFC’s Communications Department

staff. T he timeline of actual production

is usually a two-month period, from

mid-September through midNovember, although theme planning

and brainstorming usually take place

earlier in the year.

TFC has a budget of around $7,500

for this publication and prints about

2,000 copies.

W ith a total of 24 aw ards this year —

including tw o of the top honors, Writer

and Publication of the Year — Tennessee

Farmers Cooperative’s Communications

Department is consistently among the

biggest overall w inners in the Cooperative

Communicators Association’s (CCA)

annual communications contest.

There’s no real secret to this success,

says Allison M organ, TFC’s

Communications Department manager

and editor of TFC’s membership

publication, the Tennessee Cooperator.

It’s simply a matter of assembling the right

staff and alw ays keeping the

cooperative’s mission in mind.

“ We have a talented team w ho all have

skill sets that complement each other,”

says M organ. “ We w ork w ell together and

w e can do virtually everything in-house

— from creative development to graphic

design to photography to w riting. We’re a

fiscally conservative company, so doing

things on our ow n keeps budgets in

check. Plus, no one know s our audience

and customers better than our ow n staff.”

Holding the creative team to the

highest standards of quality also leads to

aw ard-w inning w ork, adds M organ.

“ We don’t aim for ‘acceptable’ w ork —

w e w ant exciting, captivating, inspiring

communications pieces,” she says.

“ W hether it’s proofreading excessively to

make sure every comma is in place,

redesigning an ad that doesn’t meet our

publication’s standards, or going out at

sunrise to capture the perfect light in a

photograph, w e never do anything

halfw ay. That often means long hours and

stressful deadlines, but the end result is

alw ays rew arding w hen w e’ve

done our absolute best.”

W hile TFC staffers brought

home their fair share of trophies

from this year’s CCA contest,

M organ says the competition

means much more than aw ards

and accolades.

“ Entering contests allow s us

to reflect and evaluate a year’s

w orth of w ork and gives us a

benchmark to measure w hat

w e’re doing against others in

our field,” she says. “ W hen you

w in, it builds confidence in your

abilities and provides more

credibility w ith readers,

customers, cow orkers,

managers and peers. W hen you

lose, it just re-energizes you to

do better next year!”

Doing it right: TFC Communications

Allison M organ interview s a co-op member for

an article in TFC’s prize-w inning publication,

Tennessee Cooperator.

22 July/August 2010 / Rural Cooperatives

W inning Communications
urora Cooperative, a

farmer co-op based in

south-central Nebraska,

claimed first place

honors for annual

reports with a budget of less than

$50,000. Brett Faber, who recently

moved from being communications

manager to human resources manager

for the co-op, provides some insight,

below, into how the co-op went about

producing this memorable annual

report, which communicates a lot of

information in only 12 pages.

Question: Who is the audience for

your annual report?

Brett Faber: Aurora’s memberowners are the audience. Our bankers

also find it useful.

Q. What was the press run? Is it also

on the Web?

Faber: We printed 1,000 copies and

also posted in on the Web.

The use of a horizontal

format helped reinforce

the “Bright Horizons”

theme of Aurora

Cooperative’s annual

report. Judges also liked

the simple, clear graphics

on the financial pages.

Rural Cooperatives / July/August 2010 23

“Theme, imagery and titles tied together nicely. Good use of logo/branding

on cover and interior. Message from president/CEO and board chairman is well

written. Good choice of companion colors and imagery.

“Horizontal layout fits well with the “Horizon” title. This is a very nice

annual report — it is clean, the writing is concise and the imagery is pleasant

and provides a consistency throughout the pages. The color scheme and layout

are “comforting” — which is a good thing in this economy. The report has the

simplest and clearest presentation of financials entered in this year’s

competition.” ■

Judges comments:
24 July/August 2010 / Rural Cooperatives

America Crystal designer-tees wow members & judges

he Programs and

Projects portion of the

CCA co-op

communications

competition includes

endeavors as varied as co-op websites,

videos, exhibits and advertising, among

others. It also includes a “Miscellaneous” category for harder-to-classify

projects. This year, not only did

American Crystal Sugar Company take

home the first place trophy in Miscellaneous, but its entry also won the

grand prize for best of class in

Programs and Projects.

While many co-ops sell t-shirts, caps

and jackets with their co-op logo, ACS’

new line of t-shirts are graced with

beautiful designs and colors, as well as

text that blends humor with a serious

message. Shameless attention grabbers!

Question: Were the t-shirts geared

for members or the public?

Jeff Schweitzer, ACS

Communications Director: Members,

employees and other interested parties.

Q. What was the overall goal or

main message?

Schweitzer: The garments were part

of a “re-imaging” campaign for

American Crystal’s Company Store.

The Company Store merchandise had

become somewhat stale over time. The

goal was to create a set of graphic tees

with clever messages to liven things up,

pull more traffic to the store and drive

sales.

We also want to create a sense of

pride and a feeling of belonging to an

exclusive group for our members. The

Company Store operates at our early

December annual meeting, and many

members buy gifts for relatives, friends

and family. Sales the past year were at a

record high.

Were they produced in-house?

The concepts were generated inhouse. The graphics were a joint effort

of in-house and agency creative talent.

The garment production was done by a

long-standing vendor who manages

American Crystal’s fulfillment needs.

What was the budget?

About $500 per garment design was

used as a limit for graphic design.

What kind of timeline did you have?

Coming up with creative ideas and

items to outfit our Company Store is a

continuous process that spans the whole

What was the overall goal?

The overall goal was to inform our

members on the performance of our

company for the fiscal year and

highlight our four core business areas:

grain, feed, agronomy and energy.

Was it produced in-house, or by an

agency?

We used an agency, David and

Associates, to produce it.

What was the budget and timeline

for the project?

The budget was $6,000, and it took

about a month to produce this project,

from concept to printing.

Describe your planning process.

David and Associates met with

George Hohwieler, Aurora

Cooperative’s president and CEO, and

other cooperative staff to get a solid

understanding of how our 2009 fiscal

year was shaping up and how the

cooperative expected the next year to

go. A year earlier, our annual report

included information about Aurora

Cooperative’s success in more troubled

times — how the cooperative

performed very well even though there

was turmoil in global financial and

agriculture markets.

From the cooperative’s perspective,

we felt that the most difficult times

were behind us and that we would have

an outstanding 2009 and would be in an

even better position for what we

believed was coming in 2010. Our

agency team took these thoughts and

developed the “Brighter Horizons”

theme and the overall look of our

annual report. Our “A” logo, with the

sun behind it, appears in different

images of horizons. Our team felt this

look and tagline fit our year perfectly,

and the agency ran with it. ■

Winning Communications
Rural Cooperatives / July/August 2010 25

year. That said, these ideas were

generated in August, produced in

November and went on sale in

December.

Any special considerations or

concerns that you had to keep in

mind?

As a 37-year-old cooperative,

American Crystal is seeing a

demographic change in our member

base. The founding members are

retiring, and many second- and thirdgeneration members are now in control

of the farming operations. Through the

fresh graphics and messages of these

garments, we wanted to tip our hat to

these younger members while

acknowledging the proud heritage of

our founding members. We also wanted

to drive some “coolness” back into our

product offering.

Results/reaction?

As evidenced by most of these

garments selling out at our annual

meeting, we hit the nail on the head.

Our assessment was accurate that

people’s interests have swung away from

having a simple logo on a shirt or hat,

to garments with clever messaging

about the business. We also cashed-in

on returning trends to oversized

graphics and the “mashing” of

contemporary-throwback graphics.

American Crystal is pleased with the

results. ■
Best Print Advertisement is another

contest category that always draws

impressive entries. Claiming first place

for her Equis Feeds ad was Caroline

Snodgrass, marketing communications

specialist with CHS Inc.

Question: Where did the ad run?

Caroline Snodgrass: We ran the

advertisement in the Northwest Rider

and Rocky Mountain Rider, along with

various other local newspapers.

Q. Target audience?

Snodgrass: Value-conscious horse

owners, primarily in the Pacific

Northwest, were the audience.

Was it used on the Web?

No, the advertisement just directs

customers to: www.equisfeeds.com

Overall goal or main message?

The Equis brand is geared towards

owners who want to give their animal

quality nutrition, but not at an inflated

price. There are lots of other things you

can do with the money you save using

Equis feed, but you know at the same

time you are providing the best

nutrition for your animal.

Produced in-house? Any freelance

work used?

We used an outside agency for the

design. A freelancer helped with the

copy.

Budget? Timeline?

The budget was $3,500; the timeline

was one month.

Planning process?

This is the first advertisement for

our revamped Equis brand. This was

one tactic among a number of items

used to launch the new identity.

Any special considerations or

concerns?

We wanted to make sure people

know that they can provide the best for

their animals at a good value. We want

to make sure we are known for quality,

not just as the economy brand.

Any lessons learned?

You can do a lot on a little budget.

Results/Impact?

Our sales have increased 30 percent

in the past six months in the area we

advertised. This is also being

accomplished with the help of our

aggressive sales team. ■

26 July/August 2010 / Rural Cooperatives

Winning print ad helps

horse owners realize

that economy and quality

can ride together

Winning Communications
Rural Cooperatives / J uly/August 2010 27

Editor’s note: article courtesy Teri Ditsch

(T JD Design), Mark Bagby (Calcot) and

Donna Abernathy (DLF Communications).

T he Cooperative Communicators

Association (CCA) presents three

special honors each year. T hese

recognize a co-op manager/CEO for

communications excellence, a career

achievement award for a co-op

communicator and an award for an

outstanding young co-op communicator

(35 or younger).

Krisle w ins CEO Aw a rd

An accountant by trade, Bart Krisle,

CEO at Tennessee Farmers

Cooperatives (TFC), is one who sees

things by the numbers. But he’s equally

committed to communicating about

matters of importance to his

cooperative, which is why the numbers

added up to his winning the 2010 CEO

Outstanding Communicator Award.

Krisle believes “promotion of

education,” one of the original

principles of cooperation, remains

important to cooperatives today.

“In the co-op world, our

communications people are the

stewards of this principle. T hey are the

ones who — day in and day out —

educate and communicate with our

membership and other key business

partners about how the cooperative is

accomplishing its mission and creating

value for its members,” he says. Krisle

has been with TFC for 26 years,

assuming duty as CEO in 2006. He

immediately gained a reputation for

having a simple, honest, straightforward

communications style with an “opendoor” policy that encourages employee

and member feedback.

“As a TFC director, I’ve benefited

from his ability to put information on

our level and help us understand

complex issues, says “Whitey”

Doughery, TFC chairman. “It’s also

plain to see that Bart has an excellent

relationship with our members at the

local level, and it all comes down to

how well he communicates with them.”

In addition to his strong support for

the co-op’s award-winning communications team, he is noted for his

ability to connect with employees and

members at meetings.

In 2009, he instituted a new

leadership-development program for

key employees and required communications to be included in the

curriculum. In 2010, he appointed a

committee to study the use of social

media as a marketing and communications tool for TFC and its 57

member co-ops and their 70,000

farmer-members. T he co-op now has a

social media presence on Facebook and

YouTube with plans to integrate other

interactive tools soon.

Klinefelte r Aw a rd

goes to Brooks

“Innovative. Dedicated. Professional.

Eloquent. Successful. Giving. Humble.”

T hose are a few of the words used by

fellow workers and communications

peers from across the nation to describe

Greg Brooks, winner of the 2010

Klinefelter Award for his efforts to

“further the cooperative system and

raise the standards for cooperative

communications.” It is the highest

honor the association gives for career

accomplishment in cooperative

communications.

Remarkably, Brooks started his

career with Georgia’s Walton EMC 23

years ago as a member services

representative. Despite having no

background or training in

communications or journalism, he

began editing the co-op newsletter in

continued on page 46

Amber Dumont and Greg Brooks (top)

took home CCA’s Graznak and

Klinefelter Aw ards (respectively), w hile

Bart Krisle w as named top CEO

Communicator. Photos courtesy CCA

W inning Communications
28 July/August 2010 / Rural Cooperatives

As co-ops grow, so does their need to

communicate with members,

employees and the public. For many

co-op managers and directors, it’s a

struggle to determine at what point to

wave the white flag and admit that the

office secretary can no longer put out

the type of newsletter the members deserve, or that the manager is way too busy to

continue to take press calls or plan member meetings. Not to mention that the coop’s website hasn’t had any new content posted in years.

In particular, the rapid growth through mergers of local grain and farm supply

cooperatives has resulted in many large, sophisticated agri-businesses that haven’t

always upgraded their communications to match the rest of their operations. Coops that once got by without a fulltime communications specialist are increasingly

finding that the time has come to hire someone to take on this workload, including

the member publication, media relations and press releases, employee

communications, the annual report, website management, meeting planning, etc.,

not to mention the new social media (such as You-Tube and Facebook).

With many universities now offering ag communications degrees and with many

newspapers shedding skilled journalists as they lose business to the Internet, the

available talent pool is greater in many regions than in the past. Some co-ops may

choose to deal with this need by instead “farming it out,” hiring a public relations

firm with co-op experience to take on most of its communications chores, or

simply to supplement the work of their staff. Either way — with their own staff

communications specialist or help from a PR firm — everyone benefits when a coop can more effectively tell its story

On the following pages, Dori Lichty of United Cooperative in Beaver Dam,

Wis., discusses the “before and after” communications picture at her co-op. On

page 31, Afton Holt discusses her experiences after about one year on the job as

the first communications specialist at NEW Cooperative in Iowa.

Time to

Upgrade Your

Communications?

Winning Communications
Rural Cooperatives / July/August 2010 29

Question: How was communications done in the past?

Dori Lichty, communications manager: Prior to hiring

me in 2007, communications was done by several different

employees who had other primary jobs. The

member newsletter was done by a

communications/PR firm, and there was a

very simple website (part of the DTN

network). Only a few press releases were sent

out each year — after the annual meeting, etc.

The co-op did some radio advertising in the

Beaver Dam area. The main office supervisor/

administrative assistant was

responsible for planning the

annual meeting and the

employee Christmas

party/dinner.

Q. What prompted the

decision to hire a

communications

specialist?

Lichty: In January of

2007, United

Cooperative did two

things that prompted the

action. We merged with

Co-op Country

Partners, expanding our

territory to the western portion of south-central Wisconsin.

We also signed a contract with CHS Member Services to

develop a new trademark and unify the

cooperative’s image. Management quickly

realized someone would be needed to help

promote United Cooperative in our newly-expanded

territory and to implement and police our new

trademark.

What new or revised communications efforts have

you tackled so far?

On my first day here, we released our new

trademark. My primary job at the time was to implement

its use on everything — from paper to clothing to trucks.

The goal was to have a very consistent image across the

board. Fellow employees quickly dubbed me “the logo

cop.” This process took about two years, and we still

have more work to do with the truck fleet.

The logo must conform to set design and color

specifications. Everything that needs the logo on it must first

nited Cooperative was incorporated in 1936 and had

its first $1-million-sales-year in 1963. By 2009, sales

had reached $292 million. In its almost 75-year

history, the co-op has only had three managers,

including current President and CEO David A. Cramer

(see page 48 for more on Cramer).

United Cooperative’s main offices are in Beaver Dam, Wis.,

about 40 miles north of Madison. It employs about 500 full-time, part-time and seasonal workers. It has more than

55,000 names in the member system, mostly in Wisconsin. The co-op has four main divisions: feed, grain, agronomy

and energy. It is the largest cooperative feed dealer based in Wisconsin and one of the top five feed dealers in the

national Land O’Lakes system. It operates three state-of-the-art feed mills and has eight grain locations with more than

22 million bushels of grain storage, making it Wisconsin’s largest grain elevator system.

In addition to offering a full line of seed, the co-op’s agronomy division also has a state-of-the-art, customapplication department for crop nutrients and protection. Its energy division sells CHS’ Cenex-brand propane, fuel and

lubricants. United Cooperative has invested in, and manages, United Ethanol LLC, a corn ethanol plant in Milton, Wis.

The co-op also operates several convenience stores in south-central Wisconsin and owns two very successful

Ponderosa Steakhouse restaurants, one in Beaver Dam and one in Hartford, Wis.

“My philosophy is: if it’s remotely

newsworthy, write a press release, take a

picture and hit the media with it.

The worse thing they can do is

ignore it. As a result, we’ve

expanded ‘free publicity’ about 10-

fold.” — Dori Lichty

United’s new Co-op overview:

communicator

also a ‘logo cop’ U

Whether it’s turning a clever phrase in

her newsletter or flipping pancakes at

a member picnic, Dori Lichty loves

working for her co-op. Photos

courtesy United Cooperative
30 July/August 2010 / Rural Cooperatives

come through me. I have specific vendors who are my “logo

deputies,” and know what is right and what is wrong.

I also worked with management to implement a new, more

professional clothing policy for employees. Shorts and

sleeveless shirts are no longer allowed, nor is any attire

bearing graphics other than United Cooperative or our

suppliers. I also moved to online clothing orders to save time

with paperwork.

I then created United Cooperative’s first marketing

budget, which included money for an advertising campaign

on about 12 different radio stations throughout our trade

territory. I also started producing all the co-op information

sheets, brochures, meeting invitations, annual reports,

folders, postcards, etc., so that there is a consistent look to all

of our marketing materials in all of our divisions.

Our patron newsletter is now done entirely in-house. I

have a strong newspaper ad design and pagination (electronic

layout) background, so taking on the newsletter was a natural

step. I write the patron profile and our employees write the

other articles. Since we have about 30 locations, I’ve also

implemented a monthly employee newsletter, distributed by

e-mail.

How about the media and Internet?

Regarding the media, my philosophy is: if it’s remotely

newsworthy, write a press release, take a picture and hit the

media with it. The worst thing they can do is ignore it. As a

result, we’ve expanded “free publicity” about 10-fold.

Our website was, and remains, a major project on my

check list. We use Telvent DTN — a very simple template

for a farm co-op website. But many of our rural customers

still only have access to dial-up Internet, so we think a very

basic website is still the best option for now. However, I

created new web pages for each of our divisions. I also added

a news page, a “what is a cooperative?” page, a United

Cooperative Story page, an ethanol page and added related

links. Our grain-bid pages are the most popular reasons for

visitors on our website.

Are you involved in special event planning?

Yes. The co-op has always had one big customerappreciation picnic in Beaver Dam every year. But with our

expanded territory, we now hold two picnics. We serve

almost 4,000 people, so we keep things simple: dinner, drinks

and socializing.

As a result of the 2007 merger, we have made big changes

in our employee Christmas party. We now have a much

larger group to feed, and there was discussion about

cancelling it. But I felt that would jeopardize the teamwork

environment and communication we wanted to maintain. So

I put together a budget to rent a banquet room at a resort in

Wisconsin Dells. We had a cash bar, appetizers, a plated

meal, entertainment (a comedian) and some nice door prizes

(computers, TVs, sports tickets, etc.). Employees were

offered room-rate perks if they wanted to stay overnight. Our

CEO spoke for a few minutes, thanking employees for their

efforts, and there was an eight-minute photo show with

music that I put together from snapshots taken throughout

the year.

I felt really strongly about the need for this event; the day

upper management said “yes” to it was one of the happiest

days of my career — second only to the day our CEO told

me he liked the party and to do it again next year, and even

to add some music entertainment afterward.

I also oversee our scholarship program (we had more than

70 applicants for 10 scholarships this year) and donation

requests. For donations, we put priority on 4-H, FFA, dairy

breakfasts and other organizations and events that support

youth in agriculture — the future of our industry. This makes

me, rather than one of our salespeople, the “bad person”

when we have to turn down a request.

Results, or reaction, from these efforts so far?

The monthly e-mailed employee newsletter has been wellreceived. With the size of our cooperative, employees like to

read briefly about what is going on in other divisions and at

other locations. The annual Christmas party is also popular.

The biggest impact of my position has been in the

implementation of our new trademark. It is now very easy for

our patrons to recognize our locations, vehicles, people, etc.,

and we’ve received comments accordingly. We earned a

second place award from CCA in 2008 for the

implementation of our trademark, and in 2009 we earned an

honorable mention from CCA for a broad portfolio of our

communications work.

What’s on the drawing board regarding communications

efforts?

I’m working on a company video that we’ll use to tell our

co-op story, to show potential customers and for recruiting

employees. We’ve never had one before. We’re using

VistaComm, a PR firm with ag and co-op experience, to

shoot the video and help me write a script. In the future, I

would like to get the co-op more involved in social media.

We’ve already started text messaging grain bids, which has

been well-received.

What’s your background?

I was raised on a dairy farm in Fond du Lac, Wis., and was

very involved in 4-H. To get me to compete in the Fond du

Lac County 4-H Speaking Contest, my mother bribed me

(she agreed to let me get my ears pierced). At the time, I was

scared to stand up in front of a group of people and talk. But

I won the blue ribbon, got my ears pierced and I haven’t

stopped talking since.

Winning Communications
Rural Cooperatives / July/August 2010 31

I earned a BA degree in agricultural marketing

communications from the University of Wisconsin-River

Falls. Following college, I worked in the newspaper business

as an advertising consultant, then worked as a marketing

coordinator at DCI Cheese Co. in Ritchfield, Wis. My

communications skills were sharpened when I took a job with

the Tribune Record Gleaner in Loyal, Wis. I had to be a “jackof-all-trades” there, as I am today with United Cooperative.

My husband, Steve, and I have a dairy farm in Ripon,

Wis., and we have one daughter, Vivian. In my free time, I

enjoy educating others about production agriculture and

volunteering my communication skills for Fond du Lac

County Farm Bureau Young Farmers and the Fond du Lac

County Holstein Association, among others.

What’s been the hardest part of your job so far? What’s

been most satisfying about it?

The hardest part of my job is getting something new

approved. As is fairly typical of farmer-owned cooperatives,

we are very money conscious and evaluate every dollar we

spend. However, the most satisfying part of my job is when a

project is approved and I can move on with the planning

process.

Any key lessons you’ve learned so far?

I can be aggressive about doing my job, and the biggest

lesson I’ve learned since I started here is that sometimes it’s

best to take off my “aggressive hat” and put on my “listenand-learn hat.” Many of my fellow employees, including our

president and CEO, have been working in the cooperative

system their entire careers, and I’ve learned a lot from these

people, about business and management, by listening.

Quote from Co-op President/CEO David A. Cramer:

“I’m pleased with the results so far. We’ve made a lot of

progress since Dori was hired. She is very detail oriented; this

helps keep our message consistent and complete. In the past,

some of that detail and consistency was lost because we had

several people handling different parts of our

communications program.

“I think as cooperatives grow, it is very important that

your story be told to as many people as possible. If that is

going to be accomplished properly, a communications

specialist is needed. In our case, we have enough work for a

fulltime position. Some cooperatives may not have that

option. However, a ‘sharing arrangement’ with another

company might then work out.” ■

EW Cooperative is a grain, agronomy and

feed cooperative with 21 operating locations

in Northwest and North Central Iowa,

including the main office in Fort Dodge, Iowa.

The co-op serves more than 2,800 members.

NEW was formed in 1973 when local cooperatives in

Badger and Vincent, Iowa, merged. NEW is an

acronym for North East Webster, the home county of Badger, Vincent and Fort Dodge.

Since that merger, NEW has grown steadily, the most recent addition coming in 2007 when NEW merged with

Farmer’s Cooperative elevators in Carroll, Glidden, Lidderdale and Lanesboro, extending NEW’s trade area further

south. NEW has also added many products and services, especially in the agronomy department, where additional

seed choices and innovative fertilizer and crop-protection products are offered. Due to the tremendous increase in

agronomy sales (new records have been set repeatedly), a number of capital improvements and additions have been

made, including construction of some major new warehouses.

Also under the Agronomy umbrella is the MAPS (Midwest Agronomic Professional Services) department. Developed

around 1995, when precision agriculture began to boom, MAPS has since grown to include an in-house-developed

program for precision field management. This involves all steps in the process, from soil-sampling, variable-rate

application prescriptions, yield mapping and service and installation of precision hardware equipment.

Something’s new

at Iowa’s NEW

Co-op

Question: How was communications done in past, and

who was responsible for it?

Afton Holt, Communications Specialist: Before creating a

communications specialist position at NEW, communication

responsibilities rested on several different sets of shoulders.

Many publications were outsourced, the website needed

updating, press releases were rarely issued and employee

communication needed attention. Decisions about co-op

advertising were primarily made by one person who had

many other important responsibilities. As NEW continued to

grow, it became harder to make sure advertising dollars were

being spent in the most efficient and beneficial way. Many

N

Co-op overview:
32 July/August 2010 / Rural Cooperatives

other communications jobs were done by multiple people

who had other primary job responsibilities.

Q. What finally prompted the decision that it was time

to hire a communications specialist?

Holt: NEW was growing in so many directions that it

became increasingly apparent that a specialized

communications staff person was needed to take on the

responsibilities that had been previously been a side job for

others. This, of course, also freed up more time for them to

devote to their main jobs.

What new or revised communications efforts have you

tackled so far?

The first communications tasks I took on were the

website, employee newsletter and how donations were

handled. As a cooperative, we understand the principle of

making sure we are taking care of our communities, and

donations have always played a big part in that. We now have

developed donation request forms, which I am the first to

review. This also ensures that NEW’s donations meet our

priorities: agriculture, youth and community betterment.

The website was a year-long process, from start to finish,

and will continue to be a project that is updated with new

features and options. We now provide our members,

customers and employees an improved website that provides

information they need from the cooperative. We have also

just launched our mobile website, along with the ability to

receive grain bids for corn and beans via text messages.

As I continue to work to advance the communications at

NEW, the main goal is to not just sell or grow, but to provide

for our members a cooperative that they are proud to be a

part of. The main goal of maintaining a positive image is why

we continue to plan more customer appreciation and

community events, in addition to providing information in

new, professional ways to help educate our customers.

Any results or reaction to these efforts so far?

As we’ve improved our communications products and as

more planning has gone into areas such as advertising,

producer meetings, annual reports and meetings, community

involvement, etc., we have begun to receive encouraging

comments from members and the public. I accepted two

awards at the Cooperative Communicators Association’s

annual Institute in June for the categories of best Website

and Most Improved Publication (for our employee

newsletter).

After returning from the Institute, I announced these

awards at a board of directors meeting, after first thanking

them for their support of my position and the input that has

helped us achieve these awards. Due to the great backing by

members, directors and co-workers, we have all helped to

increase the communications at NEW.

What’s on the drawing board in the way of other new

communications efforts?

The next large project on the horizon is to produce a new

video about the company, and a video for employee

recruitment purposes. We’ll also be focusing on our

employee orientation program. An ongoing project is to take

a closer look at our advertising dollars and where they are

best used, and we are beginning to step into the social media

and e-mail marketing sector. With so many options available,

we are making decisions as to what will most benefit NEW

and our members.

Are you using any outside experts to help with your

communications (such as a webmaster, or layout/design

person)?

Our website required outside help; they were excellent to

work with and took my content and design ideas and laid it

out wonderfully. Much of our printing is done in-house, but

for many larger print jobs — such as customer newsletters,

annual reports and some direct mail pieces — we use an

outside printing company. I do most of the design and layout.

Tell us about your background.

I am originally from Ellsworth, in central Iowa, where I

grew up on a farm raising livestock. I attended Iowa State

University and graduated with a BA degree in Agriculture

Education-Communications, with a minor in Animal Science.

I benefitted from many outstanding internships that helped

me understand how extremely important marketing and

communications are in agriculture, and how one person,

through well-executed communication efforts, can change

thoughts and provoke action.”

Do you have any other duties besides communications?

I also plan many of the co-op’s special events, which I

consider to be part of the communications function. These

include the employee Christmas party, golf outings, board

retreats and our 1st Annual Motorcycle Poker Run (to raise

money for our local schools), among others.

What’s been the hardest part of your job so far?

The hardest part about my job is not opening my

supervisor’s eyes to change, but opening up the eyes of some

others. While most think that change is good and needed,

others can be hesitant if something is already working “good

enough.” Good enough isn’t good enough for me! There are

Winning Communications
always ways we can look to improve something and step out

of the box.

It has also been tough to make sure my communication

efforts are targeted to all members. With such a wide age

range and multiple generations involved in production

agriculture, it is a challenge to make sure the message I am

sending is well received by members of all ages.

What’s been the most satisfying part of the job?

Being a representative of the cooperative and knowing that

wherever I may be, I am a face of the co-op. I have a job that

allows me to interact with the same type of farmers and rural

people I grew up with, and I enjoy establishing new working

relationships with them. It is so important to me that NEW

never lose the “local cooperative” feel to our members and

communities.

I love that I can be constantly creative, and that no two

days are ever the same. One of the most important things I

was looking for in employment after I graduated from college

was to find a place where my everyday job responsibilities

would involve providing a service to, and helping, others. I

do just that.

Any key lessons you’ve learned so far?

You will never be able to please everyone, but if you take

the time to listen to people’s thoughts — negative or positive

— you will be able to create the best decision or solution

possible and walk away confident in what you did. And never

forget who you are representing: yourself, your cooperative

and your community.

Quote from Co-op Manager Brent Bunte:

“It has become increasingly important for cooperatives to

be able to effectively communicate with their members,

employees and the public. A communication specialist is able

to bring different departments of the cooperative together to

make sure that everyone understands the same goals and

projects being put in place. Since NEW Cooperative has

hired its first communications staffer, we have seen great

improvement in many areas and more attention to details

that were previously overlooked. Our mission is: To Add

Value To Our Members’ Operations. A communication

specialist is another way of adding value for our members.” ■

Rural Cooperatives / July/August 2010 33

Afton Holt interviews Steve

Daniels, manager of one of

NEW Cooperative’s facilities

in Iowa. Below: Holt snaps

some photos at NEW’s

facility in Duncombe, Iowa.

Photos courtesy NEW

Cooperative

“It is so important to me

that NEW never loses the ‘local

cooperative’ feel to our members

and communities.” — Afton Holt
34 July/August 2010 / Rural Cooperatives

An American Farmer

in Afghanistan

Equity Livestock co-op member says volunteer stint

in war-torn nation challenging, but also rewarding

George Roemer's co-op experience has been an asset in his efforts to help

rebuild Afghanistan's agriculture sector. Above: Roemer (third from right)

shares a meal with Afghan and U.S. service members and with elders of the

Shinwari tribe. Top: He checks on a fat-tailed sheep. The citrus orchard (in the

background) is being rehabilitated by the military to provide food

and work for local people. Photos courtesy George Roemer and

Equity Livestock Sales Association
Rural Cooperatives / July/August 2010 35

By George Roemer

Editor’s note: Roemer is a dairy farmer, has worked as an ag

teacher and is the former board vice chairman of Equity

Cooperative Livestock Sales Association in Baraboo, Wis. This

article (slightly abridged here) originally appeared in the spring

issue of “Equity News,” the co-op's member newsletter. The

opinions expressed are his own, and do not necessarily reflect those of

USDA or its employees.

hen I first came across the job description for

“Field Program Officer” (FPO) with the

United States Agency for International

Development (USAID) in Afghanistan, it

seemed a far-fetched idea to apply for it.

Today, I am writing this article sitting in a Forward

Operating Base (FOB) near the city of Jalalabad in

Nangarhar Province. We are located on the old ‘Silk Road’

used by camel caravans, Genghis Kahn, Marco Polo, the

British, the Russians, the Taliban and now the Americans. It

is the main route to Pakistan via the Khyber Pass, about 35

miles away.

So why would a farm boy from Rubicon leave the

comforts of Wisconsin, America and family to enter a war

zone 9,000 miles home?

It was a long, hard, gut-wrenching decision, based on

three personal experiences: 1). President John Kennedy’s

“Ask not what your country can do for you...” speech; 2). A

Bible verse that begins, “As ye do unto the least of these...”;

and 3). The desire to try and make the world a safer place for

our children and grandchildren by giving back to a country

that has allowed me to do so much.

I don't have any illusions about changing the world. I

discovered, however, there are too few folks helping over

here who have practical, “hands-on” agricultural experience.

The agency that hired me was thrilled with my resume. The

experience I gained as an Equity Regional Board member is a

key reason I was hired. Being a Peace Corps volunteer, ag

teacher and dairy farmer were important as well.

My work here consists of two major duties. One

responsibility is to help administer the USAID programs in

Nangarhar. About 20 percent of all American aid comes here

because this is the “breadbasket” of Afghanistan. The other

responsibility is to advise and assist the Agribusiness

Development Team (ADT), made up of Missouri National

Guard members. They plan and design projects to support

agriculture, like greenhouses, cold storage, slaughter houses,

etc.

I may also help advise in the area of agricultural education.

It seems my ‘skill set’ matches the work quite well.

Beautiful but suffering land

This is a beautiful and confounding country.

Almost everywhere one looks, the horizon is filled with

snow-capped mountains. In many of the valleys are centuriesold terraced fields fed by irrigation systems that start in the

mountains. Afghanistan only gets about 14 inches of rain per

year, so to grow crops, water is diverted from rivers and

streams to small fields of wheat, vegetables, orchard crops,

rice, onions, dates and pomegranates, to name just a few.

Most field work is done with hand labor. Winter day-time

temperatures here are 50 to 60 degrees. Summers get to be

more than 100 degrees. Locally, this area is called Flower

Land, because many flowers bloom in the spring and

summer.

This is also a country that has been at war for more than

30 years. Most cities are rebuilding after being bombed into

oblivion by any number of recent foreign invaders. As you

read in the newspapers, there is still an insurgency trying to

exert itself on the populace with its radical form of Islam.

Some things here have surprised me: fields of alfalfa; a

Holstein cow we discovered was bred by artificial

insemination; flood irrigation; Massey Ferguson tractors

pulling elaborately decorated trailers; a livestock market

capable of holding 1,000 large ruminants (water buffalo and

cattle) on auction day.

Some things seem odd: soldiers are required to remove

their hats in the lunchroom but carry weapons at all times;

old men in turbans and blankets stop to answer cell phones;

“jingle trucks” (so-called because of fringes of chains and

bells attached to their bumpers that tinkle when they travel);

jingle tractors.

Some things are appreciated: flush toilets; hot showers;

care packages; fruits and vegetables in abundance.

Some things are discouraging: lack of self-esteem among

many Afghans; treatment of women; the desperate need for

education for all children; open sewers in Jalalabad, a city of

600,000 with no municipal sewage system.

Some things are encouraging: a recent pact of tribal elders

to oppose the Taliban; the doctors at Ghanikhil Hospital,

who are passionate about their patients and women’s care; the

dedication and professionalism of the 1-108th Cavalry

Georgia National Guard.

Travel is challenging

When going on a mission “outside the wire” (the FOB is

surrounded by 18-foot walls topped with rolls of razor wire),

it is with a PSD (personal security detail). We travel in

MRAPs (super armored trucks with turret guns and 4-inchthick glass windows).

Upon dismount, I am protected by heavily armored and

armed American soldiers and Afghan police. When told to

“get in the middle, sir,” I do. The embassy issued us helmets

and armor, but as civilian non-combatants, we are not

allowed to carry weapons.

The PSD is looking at things also and keeps crowds back.

continued on page 46
36 July/August 2010 / Rural Cooperatives

By Anne Todd

Contributing Editor

USDA Rural Development

e-mail: Anne.todd@wdc.usda.gov

ore than 40 lower-income families

in Wilmington, Ohio, are tending

plots in a community garden on

the Wilmington College campus

to grow their own vegetables and

herbs. The community garden is part of the “Grow

Food, Grow Hope” (GFGH) initiative, a project

designed to raise awareness of the benefits of local

food production and backyard gardening.

A key goal for GFGH is to help Wilmington

residents learn to practice self-sustaining daily food

habits.

“Families learn how to garden, but more

importantly, they become self-sufficient and have

the ability to control one thing in their lives: the

ability to grow fresh food,” says Monte Anderson,

Wilmington College professor and chair of the

agriculture department, who is one of the project’s

founders.

Project roots

When Grow Food, Grow Hope was started last

year, it was at a time when the need for services by

low-income people in Wilmington was especially

acute. A city of 12,000, Wilmington has been

significantly affected by the economic downturn,

which really hit home when one of the region’s

major employers — DHL, an air freight company

— closed its Wilmington facility in July 2009,

eliminating 8,000 jobs.

Ground was broken for the community garden at

the college in spring 2009. GFGH subsequently

taught 20 area lower-income families how to grow

their own produce. The plots were provided free to

the families, as were the tools, education materials

and other needed resources.

Grow Food, Grow Hope is an AmeriCorps

VISTA community project designed to lift lowincome residents out of poverty. GFGH is carried

out by nine young VISTA volunteers and a number

of community partners. Wilmington College

provides office space, equipment and the other

material support needed to carry out the initiative.

The project is funded through a three-year

AmeriCorps grant, which pays a stipend for the

nine VISTA volunteers.

Grow Food, Grow Hope also received a $20,000

grant in December 2009 from Tom’s of Maine. The

company selected 50 organizations across the

country as finalists for a grant, and then held a

contest where customers voted for their favorite

through the Tom’s of Maine website. GFGH was

one of the winners of this nationwide contest.

Since GFGH’s launch in 2009, the scope of the

initiative has expanded beyond the community

garden, and GFGH volunteers now lead or partner

in nine additional local foods projects.The primary

Grow Food, Grow Hope

Local food, new skills sprout

in Ohio community gardens

These garden plots are helping people in Wilmington, Ohio, grow their own vegetables and

herbs under the Grow Food, Grow Hope (GFGH) project.

Photos courtesy GFGH

38 July/August 2010 / Rural Cooperatives

focus areas include community and

backyard gardening, “buy local”

campaigning, farmers markets,

Community Supported Agriculture

education, youth and community

outreach, research and data collection,

as well as public relations.

The programs it supports include:

• Community Garden — This year,

GFGH has doubled the number of

families participating in the

Wilmington College community

garden and has doubled the number

of plots. The 2010 application period

closed on March 31, 2010, and soil

preparation and planting began in

early April. GFGH has also started

another community garden site on a

tract of land on Mulberry Street in

Willmington, which was donated by a

local resident. That garden is

comprised of seven plots.

• Backyard Garden Project — The

Backyard Garden Project is a new

GFGH initiative for 2010. GFGH

workers are introducing small-plot

gardening into the backyards of

families around Wilmington to

increase their access to fresh and

nutritious food. GFGH plans to

install 12 backyard gardens this year

and to have 35 backyard gardens up

and running over the next three years.

• Wilmington College Farm — An

acre of land on the Wilmington

College farm is devoted to bulk

vegetable production, with the

majority of the harvest donated to

local food pantries. In 2009, GFGH

planted more than 500 tomato plants,

a quarter-acre of sweetcorn and

potatoes and dozens of rows of

peppers, squash, zucchini and

pumpkins, among other vegetables.

• Youth Outreach — GFGH brings

the core values of growing food to

children through activities and

educational seminars held at its

garden sites around Wilmington and

at the children’s schools. GFGH also

operates a youth literacy program

called “Read and Seed,” which has

been successful in its first year and

continues to grow.

• Edible Landscaping — A growing

trend in vegetable gardening is

landscaping around buildings and

public places with edible fruits,

vegetables and herbs. In 2009,

Wilmington College Agriculture

Department Chair Monte Anderson

arranged the planting of a variety of

edible plants around the campus

library. In 2010, GFGH is expanding

the number and variety of edible

plants and placing them around more

buildings on campus.

• Clinton County Farmers Market

and “Buy Local First” Campaign —

GFGH is partnering with the city of

Wilmington and the Clinton County

Regional Planning Commission in a

Buy Local First campaign and the

Clinton County Farmer's Market.

GFGH workers staff a booth at the

farmers market to conduct outreach

and network with market managers

and customers. GFGH is promoting

the county’s Buy Local First campaign

on the Wilmington College campus,

where about 1,200 potential shoppers

spend nine months out of the year, by

encouraging students to patronize

local businesses and restaurants.

• Clinton County Fresh Network —

The mission of the Clinton County

Fresh network is to strengthen the

local fresh food economy in Clinton

County by creating a viable and

sustainable local food system with

direct links between local producers

and consumers. GFGH is helping

support this brand-new initiative by

collecting survey data from local

producers.

• ECC (Energize Clinton County)

Demonstration Garden — The

ECC Demonstration Garden was

opened in June of 2009 at the J.W.

Denver Williams Memorial Park in

Wilmington, with the goal of

demonstrating that a considerable

amount of food can be grown in a

relatively small space. GFGH

regularly collaborates with the ECC

group to plan educational events at

the demonstration garden.

• Food Distribution — During the

peak of harvest season, the amount of

food grown for donation on the

Wilmington College Farm can total

hundreds of pounds a day. GFGH

helps to ensure that the various needbased agencies in Wilmington and

Clinton County that give food to the

hungry have fresh, nutritious produce

as often as possible. In 2009, GFGH

donated more than 10,000 pounds of

food to local organizations. GFGH

plans to expand both the amount of

food grown and the number of

agencies to which it distributes the

produce in 2010.

Plans for the future

Grow Food, Grow Hope’s most

visible success has been its gardens, a

physical example for local families who

are struggling that shows how they can

save money by growing their own food.

In addition to their work at the gardens,

the college farm and around the

community, volunteers are also striving

to lay a strong foundation for the

organization so that it will have a strong

presence in the Wilmington community

in the future, long after their three-year

term of service ends.

“To me, Grow Food, Grow Hope is

a community-driven food movement

meant to change the way people think

about their dinner plate,” says John

Cropper, GFGH public relations

coordinator. “It's a way for me to serve

within my community on actionable,

tangible goals, and to reach out to those

in need of help.”

To learn more about the Grow Food,

Grow Hope initiative, visit its website

at: www.growfoodgrowhope.com; send

e-mail to: growfoodgrowhope@

wilmington.edu or call (937) 382-6661,

ext. 693. ■
Rural Cooperatives / July/August 2010 39

People’s Gardens sprouting nationwide

More than 400 People’s Gardens have been planted nationally, with at least one in every state, two

U.S. territories and three foreign countries, according to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. In June,

New York got its first People’s Garden when USDA employees helped plant a garden at the Edward

Smith School in Syracuse. The event was a collaborative effort between USDA, the school and

Morningside Cultural Trail.

Jill Harvey, USDA Rural Development State Director for New York, and Astor Boozer, USDA Natural

Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) state conservationist in New York, spoke about the

importance of “greening our communities” and protecting pollinator plants. With pollinator populations

decreasing, pollinator gardens are becoming increasingly important.

The garden is cultivated using sustainable practices and consists entirely of native pollinator plants.

It was planted in recognition of USDA’s National Pollinator Week and as part of Secretary Vilsack’s

“People’s Garden Initiative,” which encourages USDA employees to establish gardens at U.S. facilities

worldwide and to help communities create their own public gardens.

USDA agencies in Nebraska — including staff from Rural Development, the Farm Service Agency

(FSA) and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) — planted People’s Gardens containing

vegetables, native grasses and flowers at USDA Service Centers across the state.

“The People’s Garden initiative is a great way to connect the general public with the mission of

USDA,” says NRCS Nebraska State Conservationist Steve Chick. “USDA employees in Nebraska have

volunteered their time and talents to create these gardens that promote sustainable practices, provide

food to families in need, demonstrate the conservation benefits of planting native plant species and

help create a place of beauty within a community.” ■

Volunteers tend the new pollinator garden in Syracuse, N.Y. USDA photo by Shelly Harlander
40 July/August 2010 / Rural Cooperatives

Editor’s note: Contributing Editor Anne Todd recently

interviewed Patti Jablonski-Dopkin, general manager of

Urban Roots Community Garden Center, about its operation

and goals.

Question: What is Urban Roots?

Patti Jablonski-Dopkin: “Urban Roots Community

Garden Center is a consumer cooperative business

whose mission is to provide quality products for

gardening in the city of Buffalo, N.Y., and be an active

and enriching member of the community. We are

committed to offering affordable, unusual, heirloom,

organic and local plants and gardening supplies. We

foster a working relationship with the greater

neighborhood in order to encourage beautification and

urban revitalization. We reach out to the community

through free education workshops, employment and

volunteering efforts. We are currently 656 memberowners strong.”

Urban Roots just celebrated its third birthday in June. How

has the co-op grown and changed since the group first had

the idea of developing a Buffalo neighborhood cooperative

garden center?

“Our beginnings were as a bunch of neighbors trying

to beautify their community through plant swaps. Then

we realized that it took a 20-plus-mile drive to the

suburbs to obtain plant materials, and that the city of

Buffalo needed a gardening resource. A dedicated group

took almost three years surveying and planning the

business. There was a strong desire to run the business

as a cooperative and we modeled ourselves after the

Lexington Cooperative Market in Buffalo [a natural

foods co-op grocery store].

We thought we could sell shares at $100 and get 100

people to start us out. Before we even opened our doors

we had almost 150 people send us the money for

memberships.”

What steps has Urban Roots taken to increase marketing of

its products?

“We originally bought a four-unit Victorian building

Urban revitalization, beautification

are goals of Urban Roots co-op

Urban Roots, in Buffalo, N.Y., initially sought 100

members willing to invest $100 each, but had 150

members send in their money before the co-op even

opened its doors. Photos courtesy Urban Roots
Rural Cooperatives / July/August 2010 41

and an adjacent lot. We have since purchased two

additional lots for our yard, dug a well for a water supply

(we are currently working on getting an irrigation system

in place) and erected a small greenhouse to house our

plants during the unpredictable Buffalo spring. We also

remodeled and rented two apartments in the upper units of

the building and rented out the fourth unit to a local

bakery, which uses only local grains and mills the grains

itself.

“Urban Roots works very closely with other nonprofit

organizations dedicated to revitalizing the West Side and

Buffalo as a whole. Grassroot Gardens of Buffalo and

PUSH (People United for Sustainable Housing) are just

two of the organizations we work with.

“We are looking to install a driveway in the back of our

yard for easier access to landscaping materials and to build

new table units for our annuals and perennials. Our

original tables were built from materials from Buffalo

Reuse, an organization that takes items from buildings

either being refurbished or torn down and sells the goods

to the community at affordable prices.

“This is a year-around garden center. For the holidays,

we carry living Christmas trees, poinsettias and unique gift

items with gardening themes. After the holidays, we have

free workshops on various gardening topics, from

redesigning your garden to three-bucket composting, seed

starting and many more. Along with our workshops, we

host a Gardeners Give and Take, a roundtable forum for

gardeners of all levels to discuss gardening questions,

successes, failures and to work together to broaden all

participants’ knowledge.”

Are you on the web?

“Yes, we have a great website at: www.urbanroots.org. It

keeps people informed about what’s going on at Urban

Roots. We also use Twitter, at http://twitter.com/

URBANROOTS, to tweet our daily specials and new

arrivals at the store. Additionally, we send our customers a

monthly newsletter to highlight the unique products we

carry and to announce upcoming workshops and events and

the work we are doing within the community.”

What are some of the major strategic decisions that have led

to this growth and success? What are you doing to ensure

future profitability of Urban Roots?

“We buy the majority of our plants and supplies from

local growers. We work closely with them on plant variety

and quantities needed, so we are able to stay costcompetitive not only with other garden centers, but with

the big box stores, too. Since our inception, we have made

great efforts to locate and work with local growers. Our

goal is to have 100 percent of our plant stock come from

local growers.

“To ensure profitability we watch our costs very closely.

From working with a variety of growers to ensure not only

the best quality, but the best price and accounting for

delivery costs, as well. Having a dedicated and hardworking staff helps to avoid unnecessary payroll costs. We

have membership-owner drives at different times of the

year, which has given us a dedicated customer base. The

beauty of a cooperative is that people want to support their

investment in the business and the community it serves.”

What are the biggest challenges facing Urban Roots?

“The biggest obstacle I see Urban Roots overcoming is

making sure that people understand that we are not just a

group of people selling pretty flowers. We are a

professional staff of knowledgeable people whom the public

can go to for accurate information on a wide variety of

gardening topics. While we are in the business of selling

plants we will never give false, inaccurate information or

sell a plant just to sell a plant.

“Our other obstacle is trying to make capital

improvements while staying financially responsible to our

member-owners. While we would like to make many

physical improvements, we feel in today’s retail market it is

imperative to continue to be fiscally responsible to our

business, our member-owners and to the community at

large. Urban Roots wants to be in Buffalo for a very long

time.” ■
42 July/August 2010 / Rural Cooperatives

Newsline

Send co-op news items to: dan.campbell@wdc.USDA.gov

Co-op developments, coast to coast

Three co-ops form

fertilizer venture

Consolidated Sourcing Solutions is a

new business partnership formed by

three large farmer co-ops seeking new

efficiencies in fertilizer sourcing.

Members of the partnership are:

Central Valley Ag Cooperative (CVA),

in O’Neill, Neb.; South Dakota Wheat

Growers (SDWG), Aberdeen, S.D.; and

Farmers Cooperative Company (FC),

Ames, Iowa. “The formation of

Consolidated Sourcing Solutions (CSS)

will enable us to better manage our

fertilizer needs and maximize the

efficiencies of our fertilizer assets,” says

Doug Derscheid, CVA president and

CEO.

Douglas M. Stone has been hired as

CSS president. Stone is a 20-year

veteran of Terra Industries, where he

most recently served as senior vice

president of sales and marketing. He

will report to a board comprised of one

member from each of the three

founding co-ops, plus at least one board

member selected at large. This board

will provide strategic direction and

guidance to CSS. Gary Voichahoske,

who spent 30 years working in the

cooperative ag-retail business, is the

new vice president of CSS.

“CSS will add immediate value to

the sourcing of fertilizer for our

respective companies. The combined

fertilizer synergies of this partnership

will be significant,” says Dale Locken,

CEO at SDWG.

“The immediate and long-term

benefits of CSS will include: logistical

support and risk management; better

international market intelligence and

the ability to build global-sourcing

relationships to better position us and

our suppliers in the Midwest fertilizer

market,” adds Roger Koppen, president

and CEO at FC. The CSS office will be

in Sioux City, Iowa.

CountryMark acquires

assets of Core Minerals

CountryMark, a farmer-owned

cooperative based in Indianapolis, has

purchased the assets of Core Minerals,

Evansville, Ind. The purchase will add

oil exploration, drilling and production

to CountryMark’s portfolio. “The

addition of these assets to the

CountryMark business structure is

strategically aligned with all of the basic

business tenets that guide our

organization,” says CountryMark CEO

and President Charlie Smith.

CountryMark says it purchased a

predictable oil- and gas-production

base, a robust inventory of diversified

development projects and a substantial

portfolio of high-quality conventional

and unconventional exploration

opportunities. CountryMark will hire

50 employees to manage its exploration,

Tennesse flood

Parts of western Tennessee were devastated by spring floods. This

aerial view shows flooded farmland in the Dyersburg, Tenn., area where

the Forked Deer River crested at more than 30 feet – nine feet above flood

stage. The floods were blamed for killing 23 people; 52 counties were

designated as disaster areas. Photo by Andrew McMurtrie, Tennessee

State Photographic Services
Rural Cooperatives / July/August 2010 43

drilling and production business,

bringing CountryMark’s total employment to 400.

Evergreen FS takes over

Towanda Grain

The Illinois Department of

Agriculture announced in May that

Towanda Grain’s facilities in McLean

County will reopen under ownership by

Evergreen FS. “The [Illinois]

Department of Agriculture worked very

hard the past two weeks to help find a

buyer for this facility,” state Ag

Director Tom Jennings said. “We’re

pleased an agreement has been reached

that not only preserves a local market

for grain produced in McLean County,

but also protects the financial interests

of farmers who had done business with

the cooperative.”

The elevator closed May 10, when

examiners discovered financial

irregularities.

The acquisition of Towanda Grain

will add nearly 3 million bushels to

Evergreen FS, which will now have

storage capacity of 10.6 million bushels.

Johnson to retire from CHS

John Johnson has announced that he

will retire from his position as president

and chief executive officer of CHS Inc.,

effective Dec. 31. Johnson has led the

nation’s largest cooperative since June

2000. He was president and CEO of

Harvest States Cooperatives from 1995

until the June 1998, when it merged

with Cenex Inc., to form CHS.

“Under John’s leadership, CHS has

become a leader in adding value for

farmers, ranchers, rural communities

and consumers around the world,” said

Michael Toelle, board chairman of

CHS and a Browns Valley, Minn.,

farmer. “During his tenure, CHS has

grown as a global grain marketer,

strengthened producer connections to

international and domestic grain

markets and crop inputs, expanded

value-added grain processing and

extended its U.S. energy supply

presence.”

The CHS board has named a

succession committee which will

conduct an extensive search for the coop’s next president and CEO among

both internal and external candidates.

The goal is to name a replacement

prior to the cooperative’s annual

meeting on Dec. 2, 2010, Toelle said.

Johnson began his career with

Harvest States in 1976 as a feed

consultant in the GTA Feeds Division.

He later became regional sales manager,

director of sales and marketing and

general manager of GTA Feeds. He was

named group vice president of Harvest

States Farm Marketing & Supply in

1992, becoming Harvest States

president and CEO in 1995. He

currently serves on the boards of

Ventura Foods LLC, CF Industries, the

National Council of Farmer

Cooperatives and the Greater Twin

Cities United Way.

Heartland Co-op to

buy four Iowa elevators

Heartland Co-op has announced that

it is buying the assets of Newton Feed

Center Elevator, Monroe Feed Center,

Prairie City Feed Center Elevator and

Runnells Grain Elevator, according to

the Des Moines Register. The elevators

have been owned by Keith Roorda.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“We look forward to continuing the

excellent service provided by the team

currently operating these facilities, and

we intend to utilize this team to operate

these facilities for us,” said Larry

Petersen, Heartland Co-op’s chief

executive, the Register reported.

Heartland manages 48 cooperative

elevators in its system, concentrated

primarily in central Iowa.

NCFC files Capper-Volsteadrelated court brief

The National Council of Farmer

Cooperatives (NCFC) has filed a brief

with the Third Circuit Court of

Appeals focusing on the correct

interpretation of the Capper-Volstead

Act’s protections for farmer

cooperatives. The action comes in an

antitrust case involving the Eastern

Mushroom Marketing Cooperative, the

nation’s largest mushroom co-op.

“Even though this case involves a

single co-op marketing a single

commodity, the court’s ultimate ruling

could have far-reaching implications for

thousands of farmer co-ops and their

owner-members across the country,”

said Chuck Conner, president & CEO

of NCFC. “Protecting the CapperVolstead Act — and the ability of

farmers to form cooperatives — is at

the heart of NCFC’s mission. We hope

this brief will guide the court’s

interpretation of the Act.”

In its brief, NCFC argues that

integrated farmers may be members of

a cooperative under the CapperVolstead Act; that individual farmer

members should not automatically be

liable for the acts of a cooperative and

that an administrative mistake as to

entity listed as the member of a

cooperative does not cause the loss of

antitrust immunity for a qualified

farmer or cooperative.

NCFC previously filed a similar brief

with the U.S. District Court for the

Eastern District of Pennsylvania in

connection with this matter. NCFC

says it takes no position on the

underlying facts of this case, but instead

is seeking to address the legal issues

regarding interpretation of the CapperVolstead Act that have significant

implications for agricultural

cooperatives.

In other news, the organization

issued a press release in June thanking

John Johnson
44 July/August 2010 / Rural Cooperatives

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack

for expressing his strong support for

farmer cooperatives in a speech at

NCFC’s 2010 Washington Conference.

“As Secretary Vilsack recognized in his

speech, farmer cooperatives play an

integral role in the operations of

producers across the country and serve

as engines of economic growth in rural

America,” Conner said.

GROWMARK CEO

Davisson to retire

Bill Davisson, CEO of the regional

agricultural cooperative GROWMARK

Inc., has announced he will retire this

January. The co-op has formed a

selection committee to implement an

orderly selection and transition process,

which is expected to be accomplished

prior to Nov. 30, says Board Chairman

and President Dan Kelley.

In a memo to employees, Kelley said:

“I want to express sincere appreciation

for the leadership Bill Davisson has

provided to the GROWMARK System

throughout his 40-year career, most

specifically his tenure as CEO from

1998-present. During this period, Bill

has focused on long-term strategic

planning, achievement of profitable

growth and the development of future

leaders. He has also contributed greatly

to the betterment of cooperatives and

the industry of agriculture through

various leadership roles.”

Kelley said he looks forward to

working with Davisson through the end

of the year and beginning the process

of management leadership transition.

GROWMARK is a regional

agricultural supply and grain marketing

cooperative based in Bloomington, Ill.

It serves 100,000 farm customers

through its FS and grain member

cooperatives and retail operations.

David Cramer saluted

David Cramer, president and chief

executive officer of United Cooperative

in Beaver Dam, Wis., was honored for

25 years of service at the co-op’s annual

meeting in April. “My dad (Donald

Bohl) was chairman of the United

Cooperative board of directors when

David was hired,” said Board Chairman

Howard Bohl. “To this day, he says

hiring David was the best decision he

ever made.”

During Cramer’s tenure at United

Cooperative, it has expanded from $7.6

million in annual sales (in 1984) to

more than $250 million in sales at

present.

Co-op events during his tenure

include:

• In the 1980s: Acquired Iron Ridge

Co-op; Built a feed mill and

agronomy facility in Beaver Dam;

Purchased South Beaver Dam for

grain and agronomy; Built Ponderosa

restaurant in Beaver Dam.

• In the 1990s: Acquired Don’s

Elevator in Allenton and Hartford

Elevator; Built Ponderosa restaurant

and new feed mill in Hartford;

Purchased Horicon grain location;

Acquired Cenex Propane in Mayville;

Merged with River Valley/Deerfield

co-ops; Corporate name changed to

United Cooperative.

• In the 2000s: Acquired Pahl’s

Propane in Horicon; Purchased

Johnson Creek Grain; Added

agronomy locations from Agriliance;

Acquired Randolph feed mills; Built

dry fertilizer storage at South Beaver

Dam; Merged with Pickett

Cooperative; Built agronomy plants in

Pickett and Deerfield; Built liquid

fertilizer storage at South Beaver

Dam; United Ethanol began

operating; Purchased Ripon Grain;

Merged with Co-op Country

Partners; Expanded dryer and grain

storage at multiple locations;

Expanded agronomy in Reedsburg;

Acquired ownership in Carbon Green

BioEnergy in Woodbury, Mich., and

Big River United Energy, Dyersville,

Iowa; Added liquid fertilizer storage

at South Beaver Dam.

MoArk reaches settlement

in egg lawsuit

MoArk LLC has submitted to the

United States District Court for the

Eastern District of Pennsylvania a $25

million settlement proposal to a lawsuit

brought in 2008 on behalf of direct

purchasers of eggs and egg products

against several egg producers and egg

industry associations. The judge in that

case recently granted preliminary

approval of the settlement. MoArk, the

layer division of Land O'Lakes Inc.,

says it will continue to vigorously

defend a related action brought on

behalf of indirect purchasers of the

same products.

The company says settling the case

removes the continuing cost and

distraction of defending against this

action, enabling MoArk to focus its

time and resources on providing

economical and high-quality eggs to

customers and consumers.

Bill Davisson

David Cramer provides some insight

into a new construction project for a

member attending United Cooperative’s

annual meeting.
Rural Cooperatives / July/August 2010 45

Swiss Valley upgrades one

plant, sells another

Swiss Valley Farms Cooperative,

Davenport, Iowa, is upgrading and

expanding its plant in Luana, Iowa. It

has completed construction of a new

silo alcove and installed new milkprocessing equipment. The next phase

of the project will include the expansion

of the plant’s “footprint” and the

development of new manufacturing

processes. New employees have been

hired at the plant, where production is

up 20 percent.

Meanwhile, the co-op has sold its

Dalbo, Minn., plant to DairiConcepts

of Springfield, Mo. The plant packages

hard Italian cheeses; it does not process

co-op member milk.

In May, Swiss Valley announced it

has become an official supplier of DOT

Foods, the nation’s largest food redistributor. By teaming up with DOT,

Swiss Valley hopes to expand its

customer base and reach more markets

through the DOT distribution chain.

“This opens a whole new channel of

distribution for us,” said Bob

Livingston, general sales manager for

Swiss Valley. “In the past, freight costs

and inventory levels were burdens to

servicing smaller customers, but DOT

now gives us that capability.”

Michigan cheese makers unite

With the help of a USDA grant, 11

Michigan cheese makers have formed

the Michigan Cheese Makers

Cooperative to help market their artisan

cheeses in Michigan. Anne Hoyt, owner

of Leelanau Cheese Co., one of the

founding members, says: “It’s hard to

do things yourself; there’s more power

as a team. You want to know how you

can help each other. We can share new

ideas, new cheeses and recipes. We’ve

never had anyone to share these with

before. It’s very exciting.”

With nationally recognized, awardwinning artisan and farmstead cheese

makers, the cooperative says it is poised

to follow in the footsteps of Michigan’s

wine industry by stressing quality,

sustainability and care of our natural

resources.

Broadband projects to create

jobs, opportunity

President Barack Obama, Agriculture

Secretary Tom Vilsack and Commerce

Secretary Gary Locke on July 2

announced investment in 66 new

broadband projects, including 37 in

rural America. According to the

grantees, these projects will directly

create more than 5,000 jobs and help

spur economic development in areas

hard hit by the economic recession.

Funding is being provided under the

American Recovery and Reinvestment

Act (Recovery Act).

Tens of millions of Americans and

more than 685,000 businesses, 900

healthcare facilities and 2,400 schools in

all 50 states stand to benefit from the

broadband awards. The $780 million in

grants and loans through USDA and

the Department of Commerce have

been matched by more than $200

million in outside investment, for a

total public-private investment of nearly

$1 billion.

Most of the communities currently

have little, or no, access to broadband

— considered key to future rural

competitiveness. “These broadband

projects will give rural communities

access to the tools they need to create

jobs, stimulate local economies and

build a foundation for future

prosperity,” said Vilsack.

Kansas co-ops offer help after

elevator collapse

Two co-op workers were killed June

24 when a portion of the AGCO grain

elevator in Russell, Kan., collapsed.

Other co-ops were quick to offer

assistance in the wake of the tragedy.

Dave Studebaker, chairman of the

Kansas Cooperative Council, put out an

immediate call for help to all co-ops in

the state, which responded with offers

of assistance through the Russell

Elevator Support Fund, set up by the

Kansas Grain & Feed Association. ■

Production is up by 20 percent at Swiss Valley’s plant at Luana, Iowa, where major expansion work has been

completed. Photo courtesy Swiss Valley Farms
As you might imagine, when we roll

into a village, it is like the circus

coming to town. Missions are carefully

planned and usually have specific goals

and routes.

Despite all this, I have been able to

talk to Afghan farmers, eat Afghan food

as a guest, drink ‘chai’ (tea), and walk

through fields to sift the soil (silt loam)

through my fingers and walk around

rocks, more rocks and still more rocks.

This country will not be able to

support large ruminant agriculture

soon. It is still struggling to feed itself.

Most buffalo and cattle sold here come

from Pakistan.

We came across eight cows that the

farmer said were each giving a liter of

milk per day. My estimate — based on

body condition, size and feed quality —

would be one liter per day total from all

eight.

USAID projects include everything

from building roads to ag education to

women’s home industry, such as carpet

weaving.

It is easy to question what our

country is doing here. I have come to

believe we must at least try to help.

Success or failure will determine the

kind of world our heirs live in.

When an Afghan doctor asked me

why I came here, I explained one reason

was the hope that someday our children

and their children will live in peace. He

said he would pray to Allah for my

success. ■

1993, moved fulltime to the newly

created communications department in

1994 and was given the task of creating

the co-op’s first communications

program.

Brooks served six years on the CCA

board, including a term as its president.

He’s noted for always researching the

new¬est communications trends and

taking advantage of technology to

incorporate what works into his

communications program. He has

mentored others in his company, his

industry and in CCA.

Dumont earns Graznak Award

Amber Dumont, director of

corporate communications at Maryland

& Virginia Milk Producers, wears a

number of occupational hats, and excels

at them all. Dumont took the

communications reins at the milkmarketing co-op in 2004, where she is

responsible for managing its public

relations efforts, including internal

communications for employees and

external communications for dairy

farmer members. She also oversees

special event planning, crisis

management, employee communications, legislative activity and

social media.

More important than what she does

is how she does it, says Allen O’Hara,

Maryland & Virginia’s director of

administration and government

relations. “Amber is extremely effective

in communicating the right message to

members in a manner they will

understand,” he says. “She is always on

a quest to do her job better than it was

done before, with an objective of being

‘added value’ to all who are exposed or

who participate,” adds Barbara Riegler,

the co-op’s director of human resources.

“She is the ‘voice’ behind our executives

who are very dependent upon her

counsel and advice.”

Dumont was just elected to her

second term on the CCA board. She

also chaired the 2007 Institute held in

Williamsburg, Va., and helped plan the

2008 Institute in Maine.

Top contest winners

In the CCA communications contest,

the top award winners in each of the

four main contest areas were:

• Writer of the Year: Chris Villines,

Tennessee Farmers Cooperative, for a

portfolio of his articles;

• Projects & Programs, Best of Class:

Jeff Schweitzer, American Crystal

Sugar Company, for new line of co-op

apparel (see page 24).

• Publication of the Year: Allison

Morgan, Tennessee Farmers

Cooperative, for the “Cooperative

America” report (see page 21).

• Photographer of the Year: David

Lundquist, CHS Inc., for a portfolio

of his work.

The publications staff of USDA

Rural Development won three awards

for editorial excellence. Contributing

Editor Anne Todd won second place in

technical writing for her article about a

wind-power project in Alaska; Editor

Dan Campbell won the second place

award in news writing for an article on

the annual meeting of the National

Farmers Union, and a third place award

for cooperative education. ■

CCA honors

continued from page 27

An American Farmer in Afghanistan

continued from page 35

there can be significant impacts on an

organization and the rural communities

they serve. Lack of succession planning

can lead to:

• Loss of expertise and business

knowledge;

• Shifts in economies of scale;

• Loss of jobs in communities;

• Loss of business continuity;

• Damaged client relationships;

• Time and effort to recruit and train

replacement employees.

The economic and social

infrastructures of rural communities are

built upon the financial growth and

sustainability of family-owned

businesses. If they vanish, so goes rural

America. Succession planning is more

than just an option — it is an

imperative! ■

Legal Corner

continued from page 35

46 July/August 2010 / Rural Cooperatives

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