This week commemorates the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose brilliance, determination and courage rallied a nation to civic participation in ways that changed America forever. One of the strategies that Dr. King and the civil rights movement used—and those who advocate for racial and economic justice still favor—is the cooperative business model. The strategy recognizes that one of the best ways for people to meaningfully participate in an economy is to come together to own and control their own businesses.  

In a shift away from its cooperative roots, the management of True Value last week announced a proposal to sell 70 percent of the hardware company's ownership to a Washington, D.C.-based private equity firm. It is now up to the members of the cooperative to consider and vote on the proposal.

In an article published by Hanover Co-op Food Stores, leaders of three of New England’s largest consumer cooperatives say Vermont's newest manufactured home park is a testament to the financial security, self-help and growth inherent in the co-op business model.

Alfonso Larrea Barroso was a member of the SCENIUS cooperative of accountants and professionals in Havana, Cuba before the government shut it down last year, frustrating co-op economic growth in the country.

An article published this week by Wisconsin Public Radio reports on the impact supporters say the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s grant and loan programs—among them the Rural Cooperative Development Grant (RCDG) program—have had on rural America.

In 2011, brand new fiber optic cables lit up for the first time across the forested terrain of the Ozarks and up and down the farmlands of central Missouri.

National Co-op Month is less than a month away! This year’s theme, “Co-ops Commit,” celebrates all the ways cooperatives build a better world—by committing to their communities, their members and to broader economic impact.

New Hampshire is known for its breathtaking landscapes, the nation’s first public library and Timberland boots. It’s also known for having one of the oldest cooperative business in the U.S.—the Hanover Co-op Food Store.

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.