THE COOPERATIVE EDGE
America’s Overlooked Economic Backbone They may be the most economically significant institutions you rarely hear about. They operate power lines across rural America, finance farms, community businesses and households, insure homes and crops, supply groceries, hardware, and school systems, market the food and materials grown and raised by our producers and ranchers, and even connect households to broadband. What institution could be suited to do all that? Cooperatives! Cooperatives are
are returned to members based on their use. And it means that the co-op exists to strengthen its members’ long-term economic position through better prices, fairer work conditions, dependable market access, shared risk, or investing in infrastructure that no outside investor would finance on the same terms. Cooperatives are about discipline. They compete in open markets and are commonly referred to as the “competitive yardstick.” They
workhorse business structures organized under state statutes — like other U.S. corporations, publicly or privately held — but they differ on four critically important dimensions: they are user-controlled, user-owned, user- benefiting, and with a user-centric purpose. What does this really mean? It means members sit on the
board of directors and the most important decisions are still in the hands of the membership, not passive shareholders. It means members who use the cooperative’s goods, services, and market access capitalize and own the company, not someone without a direct interest in the co-op’s business lines. It means that when the co-op performs well, earnings in excess of what is needed to ensure the financial sustainability of the co-op
must source capital for growth and sustainability, invest wisely in their members’ and their futures, manage risks, and make hard strategic choices, all with their members’ best interests in mind. The difference in a nutshell: A cooperative business puts the people that use it — the members — first. Its purpose is driven by and for those people, and its profits serve them, not Wall Street.
1. N RECA Report, June 2025, electric.coop/our-mission/americas-electric-cooperatives, accessed March 2, 2026. 2. National Credit Union Association, Sept 2025 Call Report Quarterly Summary ncua.gov/files/publications/analysis/quarterly- data-summary-2025-Q3.pdf, accessed March 2, 2026 3. USDA Rural Development 2024 Ag Cooperative Statistics, issued January 20, 2026, rd.usda.gov/media/file/download/usda- rd-rbcs-agco-opstats-summary-01152026.pdf, accessed March 2, 2026 4. National Association of Housing Cooperatives, ncbaclusa.coop/resources/co-op-sectors/housing-co-ops/, accessed March 2, 2026 5. U .S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives, usworker.coop/about/, accessed March 2, 2026
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ALMOND FACTS
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