What if businesses were built not just to profit, but to empower people and communities? That was the driving spirit behind Hawaiʻi’s first statewide cooperative business gathering, hosted by the University of Hawaiʻi’s Ke Ō Mau Center for Sustainable Food Systems.
More than 40 cooperative ventures, many focused on agriculture, came together in a first-of-its-kind convening. A collaborative effort between Enlivened Cooperative, Purple Maiʻa, Kauaʻi Credit Union and UH Mānoa’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience helped organize the event to spotlight a powerful, but often overlooked, part of the state’s economy.
A standout example is the Hawaiʻi ʻUlu Producers Cooperative. Since launching in 2015 with just nine members, it has grown to nearly 200 farmer-owners cultivating more than 600,000 pounds of breadfruit and other crops annually. The cooperative’s success shows how they can achieve what individual farmers often cannot: shared infrastructure, larger markets and collective impact.
“For emerging crops such as breadfruit that are grown primarily by small farmers, the cooperative model offers an unmatched tool for industry development and economic viability that is equitable and just,” said Dana Shapiro, CEO of the ʻulu cooperative. “Co-ops offer small Hawaiʻi farmers solutions for scaling and success.”
Read the rest at University of Hawai'i News
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