WAlto Dairy Cooperative (ADC) was a farmer-owned dairy cooperative in Waupun, Wisconsin. Founded in 1894, it is the oldest farmer-owned cooperative in the state of Wisconsin and boasts the nation's largest cheese producing plant east of the Mississippi River. As of 2007, ADC had two cheese plants, one in Black Creek and one in Waupun, as well as 467 employees. The cooperative has a membership of about 500 farmers. In 2007, it handled $378 million in sales and had a net income of $19.6 million.
WThe Cabot Creamery Co-operative is an American dairy agricultural marketing cooperative, which is owned by more than 800 local dairy farmers in New England and upstate New York, and Agri-Mark Family Dairy Farms, Incorporated.
WCalifornia and Hawaiian Sugar Company is an American sugar processing and distribution company. Originally organized as a co-operative in 1921, it encountered a severe decline in sugar markets and passed through a series of owners in the last half of the 20th Century. In 2017, its Crockett, California refinery processed its last shipment of Hawaiian sugar but continues to produce pure cane sugar sourced from other locations. The C&H Sugar Crockett Refinery employs more than 450 people and produces 14% of the nation's cane sugar.
WCHS Inc. is a Fortune 100 secondary cooperative owned by United States agricultural cooperatives, farmers, ranchers, and thousands of preferred stock holders. Based in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, it owns and operates various food processing and wholesale, farm supply, financial services and retail businesses, It also distributes Cenex brand fuel in 19 Midwestern and Western states. It is a co-owner of Ventura Foods, a vegetable oil processor.
WThe Clarks Grove Cooperative Creamery is a historic creamery in Clarks Grove, Minnesota, United States. It was established in 1890 as one of the first cooperative creameries in Minnesota. The Clarks Grove Cooperative Creamery used new technology and a well-organized cooperative system. It became a model for the Minnesota dairy industry. Ten years later, there were more than 550 cooperative creameries in the state.
WDairy Farmers of America Inc. (DFA) is a national milk marketing cooperative in the United States. It is owned by and serves more than 13,000 dairy farmer-members representing more than 7,500 dairy farms in 47 states. DFA markets members' raw milk and sells milk and derivative products to wholesale buyers both domestically and abroad. Net sales in 2016 were $13.5 billion, representing about 22 percent of raw milk production in the United States.
WDairylea Cooperative Inc. was a dairy cooperative which was founded in 1907 as The Dairymen's League when group of dairy farmers in Orange County, New York united to increase their bargaining power. In the 1920s, the Cooperative's membership had increased to more than 100,000 farms. While based initially in Pearl River, New York, the organization was most recently headquartered in East Syracuse, New York. They renamed themselves after their most famous product, Dairylea Milk. It was formerly named Dairyman's League Co-Operative Association, and changed its name to its present one in 1969.
WNorthwest Dairy Association is an American dairy agricultural marketing cooperative. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, it is owned by the nearly 500 dairy farm members of the association located in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana.
WFarmland Industries was the largest agricultural cooperative in North America when it eventually sold all of its assets in 2002–04. During its 74-year history, Farmland served its farmer membership as a diversified, integrated organization, playing a significant role in agricultural markets both domestically and worldwide.
WFlorida's Natural Growers is an agricultural cooperative based in Lake Wales, Florida. It is currently owned by over 1,100 grower members. It was the only national orange juice maker that uses only US-grown fruit in its products.
WGrange Cooperative Supply Association is an agricultural supply cooperative based in Oregon's Rogue Valley. The Cooperative was started in 1934 with a group of 99 farmers from the Rogue Valley who invested $10 each to form a fuel-delivering cooperative in Central Point, Oregon. Grange Co-op was limited to petroleum supplies at first. Today the company offers agricultural supplies, farm products, consumer goods, petroleum products, pet supplies, lawn and garden supplies, apparel, footwear and hardware.
WHumboldt Creamery was formerly an agricultural marketing cooperative located on the California North Coast currently owned by Foster Farms Dairy of Modesto, California.
WIn 1935, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration created an experimental farming community known as the Matanuska Valley Colony as part of the New Deal resettlement plan. Situated in the Matanuska Valley, about 45 miles northeast of Anchorage, Alaska, the colony was settled by 203 families from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. The colony project cost about $5,000,000 and, after five years, over half of the original colonists had left the valley. By 1965, only 20 of the first families were still farming the valley.
WMFA Incorporated is a Midwest-based regional agricultural Cooperative serving more than 45,000 farmer/owners in Missouri and adjacent states.
WMichigan Sugar Company is an agricultural cooperative, based in Bay City, Michigan, that specializes in the processing of beet sugar. Founded in 1906, Michigan Sugar sells beet sugar under the brand names Big Chief and Pioneer.
WThe Montana Elevator Co., was founded in 1904 as a wheat farmer co-operatives for Montana with their first elevator in Lewistown, Montana built in 1904.
WThe National Farmers Organization (NFO) is a producer movement founded in the United States in 1955, by farmers, especially younger farmers with mortgages, frustrated by too often receiving crop and produce prices that produced a living that paid less than the minimum wage, and, too often, might not even cover the cost of seed, fertilizer, land, etc. This was despite the many hours that might be devoted by an entire family. This was despite mortgages having to be paid in years of drought or hail or other crop failure. It was despite too high injury rates related to lifting and to high mortality rates due to working with heavy, sharp equipment. Frustrated farmers, thus, tried to obtain better prices. At first the methods included withholding of commodities from sale. The early methods also included opposition to those coops unwilling to withhold goods from market. During protests, farmers might purposely sell food directly to neighbors instead of through the co-ops. They might also destroy food in dramatic ways, in an attempt to gain media exposure, for example, slaughtering excess dairy cows. A 1964 incident brought negative attention when two members were crushed under the rear wheels of a cattle truck. They did not succeed in obtaining a Canadian-style quota system. Methods, thus, are different now. Details and sources are below.
WOcean Spray is an American agricultural cooperative of growers of cranberries and grapefruit headquartered in Plymouth County, Massachusetts. It currently has over 700 member growers. The cooperative employs about 2,000 people, with sales of $1.2 billion in fiscal year 2013 and accounts for 70% of North American cranberry production. Their products include cranberry sauce, fruit juices, fruit snacks, and dried cranberries.
WOrchard Supply Hardware (OSH) was an American retailer of home improvement and gardening products. Headquarters were in San Jose, California, Orchard Supply Hardware had dozens of locations throughout California, with expansions into Oregon and Florida.
WOrganic Valley (OV) is an organic food brand and independent cooperative of organic farmers based in La Farge, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1988, Organic Valley is the nation’s largest farmer-owned organic cooperative and one of the world's largest organic consumer brands.
WPrairie Farms Dairy is a dairy cooperative founded in Carlinville, Illinois, and headquartered 35 miles to the south in Edwardsville, Illinois, a suburb within Greater St. Louis. As a dairy cooperative, Prairie Farms receives milk from producers and converts it into many different products, including cheese, butter, ice cream, sour cream, cottage cheese, various dips, yogurt, and fluid milk. Prairie Farms also produces and sells juices, flavored drinks, and pre-made iced tea.
WSun-Maid Growers of California is an American privately owned cooperative of raisin growers headquartered in Fresno, California Sun-Maid is the largest raisin and dried fruit processor in the world. As a cooperative, Sun-Maid is made up of approximately 850 family farmers who grow raisin grapes within a 100-mile (160-kilometer) radius of the processing plant. Sun-Maid also sources dried fruit beyond this geographical area. In 2012, Sun-Maid celebrated its 100th anniversary as a grower cooperative.
WSunburst is an intentional spiritual community in California, which began in the late 1960s, inspired by an idea for self-sustaining World Brotherhood Colonies envisioned by Paramahansa Yogananda, the Indian yogi and author of the 1946 book Autobiography of a Yogi and founder of Self-Realization Fellowship. It was founded and led by Norman Paulsen, one of the direct disciples of Paramahansa Yogananda. Over a span of twenty-five years, Sunburst found its permanent home on the 4,000-acre Sunburst Sanctuary, approximately twenty minutes south of Lompoc, California. Scattered throughout these hills are residences of members who live on the ranch. Norman Paulsen died in 2006.
WSunkist Growers, Incorporated is an American citrus growers' non-stock membership cooperative composed of 6,000 members from California and Arizona. It is currently headquartered in the Valencia neighborhood of Santa Clarita, California. Through 31 offices in the United States and Canada and four offices outside North America, its sales in 1991 totaled $956 million. It is the largest fresh produce shipper in the United States, the most diversified citrus processing and marketing operation in the world, and one of California's largest landowners.
WSunsweet Growers Incorporated is an agricultural marketing cooperative founded in 1917 as the California Prune and Apricot Growers Association. Sunsweet is headquartered in Yuba City, California, USA. The company operates the largest dried fruit plant in the world.
WThe Tillamook County Creamery Association (TCCA) is a dairy cooperative headquartered in Tillamook County, Oregon, United States. The association manufactures and sells dairy products under the "Tillamook" brand name. Its main facility is the Tillamook Creamery located two miles north of the city of Tillamook on U.S. Route 101.
WTree Top, Inc. was the first grower-owned fruit processing cooperative in the United States. 1,100 apple and pear growers in Washington, Idaho, and Oregon own the cooperative, with the majority of the growers from Washington.
WUpstate Niagara Cooperative, Inc. is an American dairy cooperative located in Buffalo, New York. Products provided by the cooperative include milk, cream, butter, yogurt, half and half, juices, egg nog, cottage cheese, sour cream, ice cream mix and chip dips. Upstate Niagara Cooperative is owned by farmers throughout western New York State.
WWelch Foods Inc., commonly known as Welch's, is an American company, headquartered in Concord, Massachusetts. It has been owned by the National Grape Cooperative Association, a co-op of grape growers, since 1956. Welch's is particularly known for its grape juices, jams and jellies made from dark Concord grapes and its white Niagara grape juice. The company also manufactures and markets an array of other products, including refrigerated juices, frozen and shelf-stable concentrates, organic grape juice and dried fruit. Welch's has also licensed its name for a line of grape-flavored soft drinks since 1974. Welch's grape and strawberry soda flavors are currently licensed to Global Beverage Corporation. Other popular products that use the Welch's name are the fruit snacks made by The Promotion In Motion Companies, Inc.