COOPERATIVE GOVERNANCE

Farmers And Employees Working Together

At our cooperative, a symbiotic partnership exists between the farmer-owners who safeguard the mission and the employees who execute the vision. The longevity of the cooperative depends on both.

Way back in 1988, our founding farmers knew they wanted to create a different kind of cooperative, one that upholds democratic processes and farmer-ownership. It didn’t take long, however, for the founders to realize that employees would be vital to the growth and success of their dream.

From our inception, this cooperative has had a different kind of relationship between farmers and employees, one based on mutual respect and acknowledgement. Farmers are caretakers of the mission; employees are the day-today decision-makers who advance that mission. For our farmer leadership to focus on governing, not managing, we look for employees who believe in and are aligned with the values embedded in our purpose.

Another way we flipped the script is cultivating a philosophy of a multifaceted bottom line. Corporations are concerned with the well-known bottom line of their balance sheet. Because this is the primary indicator of economic well-being for corporations, there is really no such thing as a desirable cost or an undesirable profit.

Cooperatives, on the other hand, complicate the agenda. They exist to serve their member-owners, which often have many, and sometimes opposing, financial implications. Paying farmers more for their milk enhances farmers’ wellbeing, thereby creating a cost on our balance sheet that the co-op wants to see. On the other hand, too many costs could threaten the financial viability of the co-op’s survival, which, unchecked, would undermine members’ well-being.

This is a constant tension. What it means in practice is that the kinds of financial decision-making that may be delegated to computers in corporations requires, in CROPP, a vibrant democracy, clear decision-making roles and responsibilities, and a commitment to farmers and employees working together to advance the mission.