Photo: Rene Magritte painting, 1950
Hi Y’all! Adam here with greetings from Co-Opistan! Boy, do I have a bushel of information to share with you. I’ve been thrashing around in Discoverystan for weeks now! You should see how much is out here about “co-operatives.” Tons! But, that’s what I’m out here for: “to dig up that information” for all you folks in the community.
Lots of people have been wondering “what’s the difference between a co-operative business and a private enterprise business?” For that matter, they wonder WHAT a food co-operative can do for them that a large grocery store (organic/natural or conventional) with all its buying power can NOT do for them.
For many people, the concept of a food co-operative is a little hokey operation bringing them fresh fruit and produce and some crafty prepared food items during the summer and harvest season and then leaving them high and dry the rest of the year! SO NOT TRUE!
I have been checking out the following websites: Canadian Co-operative Association, BC Cooperative Association, and Co-op Zone. These are THREE massive sites which contain just about anything you ever wanted to know about co-operatives. I have assembled some precise answers to questions asked me in this exerpt from the “BC Co-operative Association’s Start-up Guide.” This guide is free for anyone to download and utilize to undertake the development of a co-op. Co-ops beget co-ops and the Association works in every way to help get cooperative projects off the ground.
There are many types of co-ops. In fact, almost any type of business is a candidate to be ‘co-opitized’. The CO-OPERATIVE ASSOCIATION ACT states very clearly that you can incorporate a co-operative in British Columbia “for the purpose of carrying on any lawful industry, trade or business on a co-operative basis.”
There are five basic types of co-operatives which can be established as either business co-ops or not-for-profit cooperative: Consumer (food, supply goods), Financial (credit unions, insurance), Marketing (agricultural, crafts, trades), Service (housing, health care, childcare, recreation, media), Worker (any type of business collectively owned and controlled by the employees).
You can see by the examples that the statement made in one of my earlier dispatches is true: you can derive literally every service and product required in life from co-ops. This is just a start! I’ll tell you more in my next dispatch.
Bye for now!
Adam
