In Iowa, cooperatives are a vital part of the agricultural landscape.
“Cooperatives were created to provide services and competitive pricing to the people that would benefit from that — their farmer-members,” says Dave Holm, executive director of the Iowa Institute of Cooperatives. “That has not changed despite the evolution in the agricultural industry.”
A look into cooperative movement's history
As farming became more mechanized and markets expanded, Iowa farmers began organizing cooperatives to reduce their dependencies on middlemen and secure better prices for their products.
Farmers with rail access constructed elevators in the mid- to late 1800s and eventually formed stock companies. These facilities were first built for the purpose of importing coal and lumber, and exporting livestock. These locations often included a grain elevator, marking the start of the grain industry.
Read the rest at Iowa Soybean Association
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