Can Cooperation Build a Better Future? | International Day of Cooperatives
The co-operative movement is a global social phenomenon. Since the founding of the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers in 1844, co-operatives have evolved over 180 years, taking root and flourishing across the globe. In 1922, the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) decided that the first Saturday of July each year would be designated as “International Co-operatives Day”. Since 1995, this day has been officially recognised by the United Nations General Assembly to commemorate the centenary of the ICA.
How much do you know about the history of co-operatives? How are they organised? How do they balance the goals of public interest and profitability, and how do they forge new connections between producers and consumers?
Foodthink’s previous articles have explored co-operative practices within the food and agriculture sectors worldwide. These lessons from abroad may help you find a path toward health, justice, and sustainability within the vast “food empire”.
I. What is a Co-operative?
How to determine the type of co-operative?
Broadly speaking, they can be categorised by membership—that is, who jointly owns the co-operative—into worker co-operatives, community co-operatives, and consumer co-operatives. Co-operatives can take root in any industry.
How to distinguish a genuine co-operative from a sham?
It depends on the relationship with its members; specifically, whether the members can jointly contribute capital, utilise the services, and participate in governance. If the majority of members merely provide funding without participating in the co-operative’s operations, it easily devolves into a “shell” controlled by a small minority.
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Co-operatives actually pursue both public interest and profit, sitting somewhere between non-profit organisations (such as associations, foundations, or social enterprises) and for-profit entities (companies). Unlike non-profits, profitability is vital for a co-operative’s own operation and the welfare of its members. However, their decision-making differs from that of a corporation: it is based on “one person, one vote”, and the distribution of surpluses is more equitable.
II. Consumer Co-operatives
The history of consumer co-operatives in the 19th and 20th centuries reveals a close link between the co-operative movement and the trade union and socialist movements. The original intent of early consumer co-operatives was to help impoverished workers escape the grip of capital and gain access to affordable, fair-priced daily staples.
The co-operative movement has weathered complex and shifting political storms. In Nazi Germany, how did the movement—once called the “third pillar of the labour movement”—face total devastation? In Japan, under the New Security Treaty, how did co-operatives become an anti-capitalist alternative during the ebb of the traditional labour movement?
In a consumer co-operative, members are not merely consumers who buy goods and enjoy services by default; they should become active participants, or “lifers” who engage consciously with the act of living.
Furthermore, if the food movement merely pursues alternative market choices without addressing food justice, it risks becoming a pastime for the urban middle class. From exemplary models in the UK, Germany, and Japan to 21st-century China—in Chengdu, Beijing, and Taiwan—how are emerging consumer co-operatives responding to and reflecting upon these challenges?
III. Farmers’ Cooperatives
How smallholders can be organically integrated with the development of modern agriculture is a central concern of agricultural policy. Against a backdrop where smallholders are increasingly marginalised, professional farmers’ cooperatives provide services across production, processing, and sales, helping individual producers overcome disadvantages in technology and capital, and serving as their organisational foundation.
The well-known *Peasant Life in China* originated from the Silk Improvement Society founded in 1924 in her hometown by Fei Dasheng, the sister of Fei Xiaotong. A century later, how has the situation for farmers’ cooperatives changed? To what extent has modern agricultural technology facilitated cooperation among farmers, or has it instead raised the barrier for smallholders competing against big capital?
Issues of technology and capital are closely intertwined with industrial scale, and scaling up brings both quantitative and qualitative changes. Expanding scale requires more than just additional production factors; it also complicates production and social relations—such as the division of labour and employment relationships—leading to a divergence in socio-economic status. The value of a cooperative economy, however, lies not just in increasing yields and income, but in its potential to reshape production relations.
This potential is rooted in the dual nature of the cooperative as both an economic and a social organisation; accordingly, the relationship between the cooperative and its members oscillates between one of mutual interest and one of community. Without returns, the public good cannot be sustained; yet, a purely economic relationship may lead the cooperative to disintegrate under the illusion of the ‘free market’. In an adverse market environment, then, how can this fragile balance be maintained?
Venturing into rural development inevitably involves a gap between ideals and reality. Looking at the progression from past to present, what old and new challenges does rural development face, and can the goals of the cooperative economy be better achieved? Several experienced practitioners have candidly shared their practices and reflections with Foodthink.
In the field of rural development, the concept of being “villager-led” seems self-evident. However, when we turn our attention to the livelihood needs of the farmers themselves, many questions remain: amidst an increasingly fragmented farming community, whose needs are we actually addressing? How do village social relations influence the fulfilment of these livelihood needs? To what extent are these needs autonomous, or are they shaped by markets and capital?
Ecological agriculture may seem like a choice contrary to economic rationality. What, then, is the standpoint of social organisations in promoting ecological agriculture? What considerations lead farmers to choose ecological over conventional agriculture? How can the potential tension between livelihoods and ecology be coordinated, and how should conflicts between ecological and conventional growers be managed?
Nevertheless, guided by a vision of a community based on equality, mutual aid, and sharing, these experiments in the cooperative economy will eventually reveal their profound significance. As we mark this year’s International Day of Cooperatives, Foodthink wishes you all a bountiful harvest through cooperation!
Editor: Anael