Co-op News September 2019: Agriculture

Why agriculture needs
co-operation more than ever
CONNECTING, CHAMPIONING AND
CHALLENGING THE GLOBAL CO-OP
MOVEMENT SINCE 1871
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EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Rebecca Harvey
rebecca@thenews.coop
INTERNATIONAL EDITOR
Anca Voinea | anca@thenews.coop
DIGITAL EDITOR
Miles Hadfield | miles@thenews.coop
WRITER
Jen Banks
DESIGN
Keir Mucklestone-Barnett
ART & DESIGN PLACEMENT
Owais Qazi
INTERNATIONAL OUTREACH OFFICER
Elaine Dean
DIRECTORS
Barbara Rainford (chair), David Paterson
(vice-chair), Gavin Ewing, Tim Hartley,
Beverley Perkins and Ray Henderson.
Secretary: Richard Bickle
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From climate change to a growing population to feed, from fierce competition in the
markets to downward pressure on prices, these are testing times for farmers. This
has brought the benefits of co-operation, which range from a sense of solidarity to
shared innovations and economies of scale, into the spotlight.
In the UK, the sector is still waiting for a collaboration fund announced three years
ago by the government to come on line. Civil servants have been busy working on
contingency plans for Brexit – but the country’s exit from the EU, which will end CAP
payments and bring tariff issues – mean this collaboration fund is urgently needed
(p28-32). Our lead feature also asks how co-operation is helping farmers in their
drive to more sustainable production, and to take control of their supply chains in a
market dominated by multinationals.
We also take a look at how agricultural co-operation plays out at difference scales,
from national policy to village projects (p34-35), and the specific issues that have
brought problems to the dairy sector, which has suffered from price volatility
bringing demutualisations, mergers, and farmer disputes (p36-37).
Of course, there are always new markets and opportunities for the sector – some of
which come in unexpected and controversial forms; this month report on the way
co-ops and credit unions in the US and Canada are taking advantage of liberalised
law on cannabis (p38-39).
Elsewhere in this month’s edition, we look at the past and possible future of
co-operation in Ireland (p44-47), efforts by the Fairtrade Mark to protect its integrity
among a sea of challenger labels (p42-43) and a new, and unusual, perspective of
the disruptive potential of co-ops – which draws inspiration from the golden age of
the pirates (p40-41).
And, as the world’s co-op movement makes preparations to in Rwanda in October,
we preview the ICA Global Conference – Co-operatives for Development (p26-27)
MILES HADFIELD - DIGITAL EDITOR
Co-operative News is printed using vegetable oil-based
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waste) with the remaining 20% produced from FSC or PEFC
certified sources. It is made in a totally chlorine free process.
SEPTEMBER 2019 | 3