As has been chronicled in numerous press stories and books in the past months, many people in rural America are feeling a heightened sense of resentment and lack of trust in institutions. More and more say they feel powerless to affect their place in the economy.

We in the cooperative community roll our eyes when we hear someone confuse Whole Foods with a food cooperative. Those days seem to be coming to a close when last week news broke that e-commerce giant Amazon will purchase Whole Foods for $13.7 billion by the end of the year. The resulting conglomerate: a co-op it is not. Business news outlets are reporting that Amazon is seeking the Whole Foods asset to aggressively expand its strategy to stake a presence in brick-and-mortar stores. The move also positions Amazon to achieve its longtime goal of breaking into the grocery industry—currently, e-commerce accounts for just 2 percent of

The last two years of progress made in the normalization of relations between the United States and the people of Cuba are being strained as President Trump announces tighter enforcement on individual travel restrictions and business transactions. The U.S.–Cuba Cooperative Working Group (USCCWG) opposes these policy actions that will reduce the free flow of people, information and goods to the island nation and hinder cooperative and other private sector growth, while further stymieing meaningful economic advances in Cuba.

Cooperatives work when people are deliberate about learning the cooperative principles, study the recipe for co-op businesses success, and spend time thinking about how their co-op can meet a community or business need. The Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance (PACA)—a nonprofit co-op organization dedicated to growing the cooperative economy and building a movement for economic justice—is no stranger to the critical role education plays in co-op success and sustainability. On April 1, PACA convened 2017 Co-UP: A Community Teach-in for Cultivating Economic Justice.

The Fifth Cooperative Principle emphasizes the need for education and training. This is fundamental to the cooperative movement, not only to ensure the success of existing cooperatives with an informed membership and professional management, but also for future leaders of cooperative businesses. By educating emerging leaders about the advantages of the cooperative approach and how to run successful cooperatives, we make sure that future generations are able to empower themselves in their businesses and in their communities. Last week while visiting Minneapolis,

For nearly 20 years, residents of Northeast Greensboro, North Carolina, had nowhere to shop for food in their neighborhood. That changed in late 2016, when the long-awaited Renaissance Community Co-op opened, a healthy, affordable and community-owned grocery store funded in part by Self-Help Credit Union's Self-Help Venture Fund. For journalist Robert McGarvey, it's a perfect example of the power co-ops have when they support each other. He explores ...

In an opinion piece published this month by Ferment: The Real Pickles Blog, Addie Rose Holland, co-owner of NCBA CLUSA member Real Pickles in Greenfield, Massachusetts, says a just, democratic and sustainable society can be achieved by working together.

In the wake of the 2016 election, political observers have paid a significant amount of attention to rural Americans who, as a group, had a deep impact on the results. Now that the election is over, it’s time to ask what types of policies would make the most positive impact for people who live in rural places. In a recent piece published in Choices Magazine, I join my coauthor Mary Ahearn in examining the role that rural Americans had in the election, economic and societal

In an opinion piece published this week by YES! Magazine, Keane Bhatt, Legislative Fellow for Rep. Mark Pocan, co-chair of NCBA CLUSA's Congressional Cooperative Business Association, argues that cooperative businesses are burgeoning nationwide, but you wouldn't know it from press coverage. In it's coverage between January and November 2012, the Wall Street Journal mentioned Organic Valley and REI fewer times than an obscure breed of spaniel.

In an opinion piece published this week by The Hill, former Reps. Jim Nussle (R-IA) and Jim Matheson (D-UT)—now president and CEO of the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) and CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), respectively—urge the incoming administration and 115th Congress to work together “in the spirit of cooperation” to achieve “meaningful change” in America. NCBA CLUSA applauds this call for bipartisanship, a hallmark of its Congressional

In an opinion piece published by The Huffington Post’s What’s Working Blog yesterday, Al Norman, founder of Sprawl-Busters, makes the case that the local food co-op movement represents society’s "best chance" to break the chains that restrict who grows our food, the quality of the produce that reaches our table and the democratization of our food distribution system.

In an opinion piece recently published by the New Hampshire Business Review, New Hampshire's Consumer Advocate Donald M. Kreis says electric consumers need a New Deal—as revolutionary as the one in the 1930s that led to the establishment of customer-owned rural electric cooperatives. Investor-owned utilities, he argues, are unable to help consumers take full advantage of technological change along with the empowerment and savings it represents.

Ahead of this week’s 2016 National Purchasing Cooperatives Conference in Miami, Florida, NCBA CLUSA had a chance to catch up with Doug Gastich, CEO of BlueVolt. An online training company that helps cooperatives and buying groups develop learning solutions for members and their employees, BlueVolt has worked with NCBA CLUSA for going on 10 years. With Gastich currently participating in the conference, we wanted to use this opportunity to highlight BlueVolt’s work and why the organization supports purchasing cooperatives. During our conversation,

NCBA CLUSA recently sat down with Dave Swanson, Partner at Dorsey and Chair of the Minneapolis-based law firm’s Cooperative Law Practice Group, a recognized national leader in the field of cooperative law. Swanson is in Miami, Florida, this week, speaking at NCBA CLUSA’s 2016 Cooperative Professionals Conference and supporting our simultaneously held 2016 National Purchasing Cooperatives Conference as an Associate Member. Swanson believes co-ops are—now, more than ever—uniquely poised to leverage the trust consumers

In an opinion piece published this week by Forbes, contributor Tara Nurin clarifies the real meaning behind the phrase "sharing economy" (hint: it has nothing to do with Kickstarter) and why craft brewers, such as the nation's first co-op brewery, NCBA CLUSA member Black Star Co-op Pub & Brewery, are increasingly turning to the cooperative business model to both ensure their workers' right to a democratically managed workplace and their community's

In an opinion piece published August 27 by The Sante Fe New Mexican, Kim Currie, vice president of marketing at Del Norte Credit Union, explains how Keep It Co-op, an association of New Mexican cooperative businesses, is essential to creating a sustainable cycle of investment and reinvestment in the local economy.

rob miller vsecu 86967By Rob Miller, CEO of