The Cooperators Podcast Episode 12 Marquette Brewing David Gill, Drink Up

Mark your calendar. Late June is when Marquette Brewing in Michigan is slated to open, making it one of around 10 cooperative breweries in the US.

That number isn't big but just about all these co-ops have formed in recent years. It's a growing sector.

Understand, Marquette is a small town, population maybe 25,000, in Michigan's remote Upper Peninsula.  There's not a lot of population to draw upon in forming a new co-op but over 200 have joined Marquette Brewing, ponying up $99 apiece.

All in the co-op has raised over $200,000.

An important takeaway from this podcast is how much help other co-operatives have given Marquette Brewing. The co-operative principles really work.

Another takeaway: the rich information board president David Gill shares about this co-op's journey to opening. He gives what amounts to a how to blueprint.

Great stuff.  Drink up.

Listen to this podcast here.

The Cooperators Podcast Episode 10 Chuck Conner NCFC on Farmers and Cooperatives

No country produces the agricultural bounty that the US does. We eat better, at lower costs, than anywhere else - and most of that food is produced through farmer owned cooperatives. That's why you want to meet Chuck Conner, CEO of NCFC, the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives.

Ask Conner what the number one issue facing his members is and the answer is blunt: immigration. The estimate is that the nation's farms are worked on by over one million workers lacking proper documentation to work legally in the United States. Take them away and, poof, there goes the agricultural bounty because those workers comprise over half of the workforce on farms.

"Congress can't seem to grapple with this," said Conner and he chose his words carefully. But also honestly.

Conner also tells in this podcast why a generation ago it was not common to proudly wave the flag of a farmers cooperative - and today that fact is proudly pronounced as more consumers want to know what where their food comes from.


Want to know how to keep eating right? Listen to this podcast as Conner takes us on a tour of agri-business for the past century.

The Cooperators Podcast Episode 11 Mike Reuter on Credit Unions

From the Ukraine to Ireland and Dominica, this podcast travels the globe with Mike Reuter, executive director of the Worldwide Foundation for Credit Unions, as he shares stories of the challenges faced by credit unions and also the generous willingness of other credit unions executives to help. Exhibit one may be the rebuilding of the Dominica credit union sector after that island's economy was flattened in a 2017 hurricane.  Credit union execs want to help and they do.

You may think credit unions don't know that they are in fact cooperatives. I know I think exactly that often and it is frustrating because the nation's 5000 credit unions could do a lot to advance the whole cooperative movement.

It turns out however that, per Reuter, credit unions in fact do a lot of cooperating. He tells that story in this podcast.

Listen here.

The Cooperators Podcast Episode 9 Stuart Reid Food Co-Op Initiative

Want to control what you eat? Of course you do. Join a food co-op and become a member-owner.

Across the country there are maybe 350 to 400 food co-ops and, said Stuart Reid, executive director of the Food Co-OP Initiative, many more are attempting to form. That's his turf. The organization has helped some 140 food co-ops form in the past 11 years. Reid knows what a co-op needs to do to actually open and he tells how in this podcast.

A lot has to do with money but Reid tells how many would-be food co-ops are finding support from governments at various levels. That's encouraging.

He also tells why food co-ops matter. It comes down to really serving the community and that's what food co-ops do.

This podcast is everything you always wanted to know about grocery co-ops but didn't know whom to ask. Ask Stuart Reid - that's what I did and he gives the details.

In spots the audio quality is scratchy. It's audible but it may sound like an old vinyl record on a wobbly turntable. Sorry. Just the vagaries of Voip.


Try and you'll hear it all fine.



Listen up.

The Cooperators Podcast Episode 8 Alex Stone

Alex Stone's business is this: helping new cooperatives to start and helping existing ones to mature and do better. That's the core mission of CooperationWorks! where she serves as executive director.

For Stone cooperatives got into her being early, during her student days at UC Berkeley where she lived in co-op housing and was also involved in a food collective.

Cooperatives, she saw, just work better in many cases.

That's why she relishes her role in helping all kinds of cooperatives and in this wide ranging podcast she discusses worker owned cooperatives, housing co-ops, grocery co-ops and a lot more.

A key CooperationWorks! function is providing training to would-be cooperators and also board members. We just aren't born knowing how to prosper in a cooperative system - but we can learn how to do it.

Another role of the organization is gathering data about co-ops but, as Stone readily admits, data is slim in many cases. We start the podcast by asking how many co-ops form each year and don't be surprised that the answer is not simple to provide.

Listen here