Can Cooperation Create a Better Future? | International Cooperative Day
Cooperatives form a global social movement. Since the founding of the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers in 1844, the movement has spanned 180 years, taking root and flourishing across the globe. In 1922, the International Cooperative Alliance designated the first Saturday in July as International Cooperative Day. Since 1995, the day has been formally recognised by the United Nations General Assembly, commemorating the centenary of the Alliance.
How much do you know about the history of cooperatives? How are they structured? How do they reconcile social and commercial aims, and forge new connections between producers and consumers?
Foodthink’s previous articles explore cooperative initiatives in the food and agriculture sector worldwide. Drawing on these insights from elsewhere may help you chart a path towards health, fairness, and sustainability within the vast “food empire”.
I. What is a cooperative?
How do you classify a cooperative?
Broadly speaking, cooperatives can be categorised by membership—specifically, who jointly owns them—into worker cooperatives, community cooperatives, and consumer cooperatives. They can take root and flourish in virtually every sector.
How do you distinguish a genuine cooperative from a facade?
It comes down to its relationship with its members—namely, whether members can jointly contribute capital, use the services, and participate in governance. If the majority of members merely provide funding without taking part in the cooperative’s operations, it risks becoming a “shell” entity controlled by a select few.
Click the image to read more ▼
In reality, cooperatives pursue both social benefit and commercial objectives, operating somewhere between non-profit organisations (associations, foundations, social enterprises) and for-profit entities (companies). Unlike non-profits, generating a surplus is vital for a cooperative’s sustainability and the wellbeing of its members. However, their decision-making differs from that of conventional companies: it is governed on a one-member, one-vote basis, and surpluses are distributed more equitably.
II. Consumer Cooperatives
The history of consumer cooperatives in the 19th and 20th centuries reveals their deep ties to the trade union and socialist movements. Early consumer cooperatives were founded to help impoverished workers escape the grip of capital and access affordable, everyday essentials.
The cooperative movement has weathered a complex and shifting political landscape. In Nazi Germany, how did the movement—once hailed as the “third pillar of the labour movement”—face near annihilation? And in Japan under the new security legislation, how did cooperatives emerge as an anti-capitalist alternative during a downturn in traditional labour activism?
Within consumer cooperatives, members should not merely act as consumers purchasing goods and services as a matter of course; instead, they are called upon to become active participants, or what can be described as “people who live”.
Moreover, if the pursuit of alternative market choices fails to engage with food justice, food movements risk becoming little more than a pastime for the urban middle class. Drawing on insights from the UK, Germany, and Japan, how are these burgeoning consumer cooperatives in Chengdu, Beijing, and Taiwan navigating and reflecting upon these challenges?
III. Farmers’ Cooperatives
How smallholder farmers can be meaningfully integrated into modern agricultural development sits at the heart of agricultural policy. As small-scale producers face increasing marginalisation, farmers’ cooperatives provide services across production, processing, and distribution. These bodies help individual growers overcome disadvantages in technology and capital, forming a crucial organisational backbone.
Fei Xiaotong’s renowned *Peasant Life in China* owes its origins to a silkworm improvement cooperative founded by his sister, Fei Dasheng, in their home village in 1924. A century on, how has the landscape for farmers’ cooperatives shifted? To what extent have modern agricultural technologies facilitated collective action among farmers, and to what extent have they raised the barriers for smallholders competing against large capital?
Questions of technology and capital are inextricably linked to the scale of operations, and scaling up entails both quantitative and qualitative shifts. Expanding scale demands not only additional factors of production, but also complicates production and social relations—think of division of labour and employer-employee dynamics, which in turn drive socio-economic stratification. The true value of a cooperative economy, however, lies not merely in boosting output and income, but in its potential to reshape these relations of production.
This potential is rooted in the dual nature of cooperatives as both economic and social entities. As a result, the relationship between a cooperative and its members constantly oscillates between material interest and communal solidarity. Without financial returns, the communal ethos cannot be sustained; yet a purely transactional dynamic risks dissolving the cooperative within the mirage of the “free market”. In an unfavourable market climate, how then is this fragile balance to be preserved?
Entering the field of rural development inevitably means confronting the gap between idealism and reality. Reflecting on the past and present, what old and new challenges does rural reconstruction face, and how can we better realise the goals of a cooperative economy? Several seasoned practitioners have candidly shared their experiences and reflections with Foodthink.
In rural development work, a villager-centred approach seems self-evident. Yet, when we turn our attention to farmers’ own livelihood needs, many questions remain: within an increasingly stratified farming community, whose needs are we truly prioritising? How do village social dynamics shape the fulfilment of these livelihood needs? To what extent are these needs driven by farmers’ own agency, versus being shaped by market forces and capital?
Ecological agriculture may appear to defy conventional economic logic. So, from what standpoint do social organisations champion ecological farming? What considerations lead farmers to choose either ecological or conventional methods? How can we navigate the inherent tensions between livelihood and ecology, and how should we address conflicts between ecological and conventional growers?
Yet, in pursuit of a communal vision rooted in equality, mutual aid, and shared resources, these experiments within the cooperative economy will ultimately demonstrate their enduring significance. As this year’s International Cooperative Day arrives, Foodthink wishes you all fruitful endeavours through collaboration.
Editor: Anael