In the 1970s and '80s, there were land struggles, assertions of indigenous rights, and attempts to figure out alternative ways of doing things. Cooperatives were one answer — business ownership, supply and demand, could be shared by forming agricultural cooperatives, electric cooperatives, retail or housing cooperatives, even credit unions.
Teresa Young started working at the Northwest Coop Development Center in Washington in 2005, then in 2016, she moved to Waimea on Hawaiʻi Island to work for The Kohala Center. Young is their rural cooperative business development specialist, offering advice and resources to cooperative business ventures.
She says there are dozens of successful and budding co-ops in Hawaiʻi — from credit unions to the highly successful "ulu farmers" cooperative on Hawaiʻi Island. Young says like all operations, they face a tough business environment, but benefit from the co-op advantage.
Listen to the interview on Hawai'i Public Radio
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