The objective of this article is to describe the key elements of cooperative finance that have been found in the literature and illustrate how they relate to the function and structure of cooperatives.

The Oklahoma Food Cooperative (OFC) facilitates transactions between producers and consumers of locally-grown food items. Although the OFC has more than 3,000 members, the cooperative is still working to discover member needs and ensure its long-term sustainability. Both consumer-members and...

While proponents claim that fair trade provides meaningful benefits for participating commodity growers, few studies to date have measured these benefits on a global scale. This study estimates the worldwide monetary benefits that fair trade provides to participating coffee farmers, most of whom...

This study analyzes factors influencing farmer interest in marketing switchgrass through contracts and/or joining a cooperative that harvests, transports, stores, and markets their switchgrass. Data are from a survey of farmers in 12 southern states. A bivariate probit analysis is used to...

This study examines the price competitiveness of marketing and production contracts depending on whether contracts are with cooperatives or investorowned firms. A propensity score matching method is used to compare prices using contract data from a national farm-level survey. The results show...

Cooperatives throughout North America are consolidating at an increasing rate and for a variety of reasons. While many cooperatives merge with others or are acquired to achieve greater economies of scale, several fail due to changes in the external economy, which make them redundant. Often, such...