Co-op Development Center Sets the Stage for 2025, the International Year of Cooperatives

In November 2024, on the day before the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union Convention in Colorado Springs, the RMFU Cooperative Development Center (CDC) put together a full afternoon of sessions with the theme Building a Cooperative Future. With the United Nations designating 2025 as the International Year of Cooperatives, we have been busy working to strengthen our cooperative outreach to the rural sector, alongside other local partners with this same mission.

At Pre-Convention this year, we hosted four presentations by cooperators walking the talk — specialists, former CDC colleagues and friends who demonstrate a unique combination of research and action in the cooperative space. The panel discussions represented a range of approaches to communal action in the rural sector.

If you attended, please click this link to fill out a brief evaluation.

The talks included:

• Identifying Co-op Types and Community Needs with Linda Phillips – A tutorial on different co-op models, depending on the different needs and interests of the particular group of stakeholders. This included a thought experiment on how building ownership as a cooperative might help a small town revive a struggling commercial street front.
• Tap Roots: 10 years of Deep Cooperation Among Colorado Food Hubs with Liza Marron & Dan Hobbs – The story of a thriving regional food hub and how it operates and survives in a challenging rural food system.
• Case Study of Sun Mountain Farm Club with Al Lake, Jennifer Dumler, Matt Noyes, & Eddie Sutherland – An experiment with a holistic-minded Farm Club of students and others to experience the interconnections between the richness of farmland, fresh produce, farmers, and the web of community. This creative bunch developed and distributed an illustrated representation (handout) of their commons-based ecology on a small farm — a balanced and sustainable micro food system.
• Colorado Farmworker Co-op: Feasibility Study Results with Minsun Ji – The feasibility study and foundational plans for a farmworker cooperative. This early-stage project seeks to connect farmers with much needed labor while also providing good agricultural jobs with humane wages and working conditions.

Connecting several issues of farm and food system imbalances, this final presentation, presented by the Executive Director of the Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Center (RMEOC), addressed the issue of labor needs and labor justice that farmers and farmworkers in Colorado face. RMFU’s Cooperative Development Center is in the beginning stage of incubating a co-op in Weld County, intending to benefit both farm workers and farm owners with this innovative approach to the critical and persistent agricultural issue of sufficient and fair labor.

While some of the discussions during Pre-Convention did not center on the traditional form of cooperative models, the range of examples was intended to expand ways of thinking about how to bolster our local food systems and inspire cooperative community-centered projects in our rural and small-town settings. Panelists invited the audience to think of specific community needs, and how a co-op (or co-op adjacent model) could fit into the solution package. Overall, the level of audience engagement and questions indicated interest and curiosity about the possibility for more equitable solutions that cooperative models may offer our region.

To close out the day, we hosted a Farm-to-Table Dinner at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs (UCCS), locally harvested and cooked by students from the Colorado Grain School at UCCS. The menu was fresh from the ground, nutritious, and of course delicious! Participants sat and ate together, continuing the discussion on how the cooperative approach to business and community development serves as an advantage when facing critical economic and social imbalances of today. It was a lively discussion, with a fellow cooperator from the Center for Community Wealth Building, Salvador Gonzalez, sharing his experiences teaching and implementing the co-op business model. He spoke about his work in the urban food and co-op sectors, and sparked a conversation about the urgency of addressing food deserts. Salvador also emphasized the close ties between economic justice, racial justice and food sovereignty, and the promise of cooperative solutions for the communities he works with in the Denver metropolitan area. It was a fitting close to a day of sharing and connection.

Looking forward to April 2025, we are proud that Denver will be the city hosting the annual member meeting of CooperationWorks!, a national network of organizations and individual members working in cooperative development across the country. We look forward to welcoming the cooperative buzz of people sharing their innovative solutions, success stories, and plans for the future within this burgeoning sector.

Also coming in early 2025, RMFU will host a presentation and discussion on land access issues and solutions in our region, led by local co-op consultant, practitioner and author, George Cheney. Stay tuned!

RMFU’s Cooperative Development Center is an active player in building and growing community partnerships and businesses in Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming to foster collaborative and cooperative solutions to rural issues. Reach out to us with any questions or ideas to share. Contact CDC Director, Sandra Baca at Sandra.Baca@rmfu.org

Once again, if you attended any of the co-op panel presentations, please click this link to fill out a brief evaluation. We look forward to your feedback!