THE STORY OF THE CO-OPS
The Story of The Co-ops THE study of farm co-operatives must necessarily include the various services performed on the commodity, whether by the co-operative or by the middleman, or private agency,...
...The farmer was taa busily engaged In the business of producing to bother with selling his products in an orderly manner...
...The refinery is being enlarged and modernized at a cost of a quarter of a million dollars and will be ready for operation June 1. The present refinery will continue operation even when the new refinery is completed in order to keep pace with rapidly growing co-operative...
...and sell it to him in day-to-day allotments...
...The Story of The Co-ops THE study of farm co-operatives must necessarily include the various services performed on the commodity, whether by the co-operative or by the middleman, or private agency, from the time such products leave the farm until they ultimately reach the consumer...
...So he did, and he's been doing it more or less, ever since...
...The city consumer does not want to drive out into the country and buy a hog when he wants a pound of pork chops...
...But in many instances, private competition, armed with past accumulated profits made on these same farm commodities has a running start on him, or even his organization...
...He would prefer to pay other people to transport the hog, kill It, cut it up, refrigerate it...
...Because of this fact, private agencies sprung up here and there to perform these marketing services...
...The farmer now realizes that he should have joined forces with other farmers and taken complete control of the marketing end of his business...
...Because of this fact, it often has been difficult for farm co-operatives to set up their own establishments for servicing their products so that they can process them in a presentable form for the consumer to buy...
...CONSTRUCTION WORK BEGINS REGINA, Sask...
...The Consumers Co-operative Refineries, Ltd., which began operation of the first consumer-owned oil refinery in the world in May, 1935, is enlarging its refinery facilities to more adequately supply co-operatives throughout the province which own and control the refinery...
...When the farmers of this country first started their farmipg operations no time or thought was given to the marketing end of their business...
...The farmer, as an individual, could hardly perform this service either...
...He never thought of the possibility of joining with other farmers and hiring such services performed, so the middleman jumped into the picture and said, "I'll do it, if I can make a profit on it...
...But...
...Construction work on the new cracking plant of the refinery got under way the first of March with the arrival of a 61 foot "bubble tower", which is used to separate the crude oil into the various petroleum products desired...
...despite even this handicap, co-operative marketing plants are being established more and more, all over the country...
...Many marketing services require considerable capital in order that they be performed to the consumer's wants...
...Thus the private middleman has performed services on farm commodities that neither the consumer could or would do, nor the farmer as an individual had time to do...
...Being" only human, the middleman naturally expected to be paid for his efforts, as well as the financial risks involved in handling the products, especially those of a perishable nature...
...One governmental agency that has helped such co-operatives In late yearn along these lines is the bank for cooperatives, which loans needy organizations capital for marketing purposes...
...The distribution of farm commodities has now reached a point, however, where there is too much spread between the farm price and the retail price...
...As a result of the growth of this system, some middlemen have gone broke, while others have amassed htiRe fortunes...
Vol. 10 • April 1940 • No. 14
