Protein Powder Perils
June 1, 2026Coop Farms
Cooperating to Compete
Michael Olson’s Food Chain Radio Show #1419
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Guests: Sabrina Servais, Farmer, Hamburg Hills Farm, Stoddard, WI, Member, Organic Vallely Farm Coopertive and Elizabeth McMullen, PR Program Manager, Organic Valley Farm Cooperative, LaFarge, WI
Michael Olson Food Chain Radio – Coop Farms Cooperating to Compete
When farming alone for a distant market, farmers tend to be price takers. But when cooperating with other farmers, they may gain enough clout to become price makers. And so we ask: How do farmers cooperate to become price makers instead of price takers?
My first MetroFarm speaking engagement was a three-day seminar for family-sized dairy farmers in Drummondville, Quebec.
The farmers were facing a fundamental change in their dairy industry, which was then being funded via government subsidies, but that would soon be forced to compete in the open market of the North American Free Trade Agreement against the industrial giants in the U.S.
The organizer of the event, which took place in the snow-white of winter, wanted me to help the farmers find a way to survive the change.
After listening to their fears of having to compete, without support from government subsidies, I suggested they consider establishing a marketing cooperative to differentiate their Quebec milk from the commodity milk of the industrial giants. I said, “What you have is not a commodity, it is something that is truly special, but you have to sell the world on how special it is. If you don’t, all milk is white, and whoever can produce the most white milk for the least coast will likely win the consumer dollars. That is free trade.”
Shortly thereafter, I met some folks at a farm conference in California who were doing what I advised the Quebec farmers, which was to cooperate with other farmers to gain some clout. They called themselves the Organic Valley Farm Cooperative, and they had something truly special to sell.
Recently I ran across the Organic Valley folks at Natural Products West, and learned their coop now has over 1,800 family dairy farm members, with sales over a billion dollars per year. Today its time to ask: How do farmers cooperate to become price makers instead of price takers?
Leave a comment below: Do you think family farmers can cooperate to become price makers instead of price takers?
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Michael Olson’s Three Laws of the Food Chain
#1 Agriculture is the foundation upon which we build all our sand castles.
#2 The farther we go from the source of our food, the less control we have over what’s in that food.
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