Through their cooperative model, Organic Valley aims to provide farmers with stability, mentorship, and future planning and at a time when many producers face uncertainty.
Organic Valley holds membership agreements with the roughly 1,600 farmers who make up the co-op’s network. These agreements represent “a commitment to know that you have a market with us for now and into the future,” Shawna Nelson, CEO of Organic Valley, tells Food Tank.
This means that Organic Valley will help farmers navigate supply and demand in the marketplace to ensure that they’re producing the right amount, Nelson explains. Farmers aren’t “seeing the instability that potentially exists in the market,” she says. “It’s pretty big, when you think about it”
The co-op tries to think about the best ways to support farmers across the spectrum, whether they are entering into farming, looking to transition from conventional practices to organic, or putting together succession plans for their land as they prepare for retirement. And Nelson says that their professional services and staff across the country allow them to work with more producers than before, determining how best to meet their needs—and it’s working.
“We’re seeing lights turn back on in some of the barns that weren’t running a year ago, two years ago, five years ago,” Nelson tells Food Tank. “We’re figuring out what the gaps are that farmers are facing and how we, as a co-op of many farmers coming together, help solve those challenges.”
Nelson believes this model is sustainable, offering security far into the future. “I’m hoping that we can continue to set our cooperative up for generations to come.”
Listen to the full conversation with Shawna Nelson on “Food Talk with Dani Neirenberg” to hear more about how Organic Valley is providing the economic support as farmers transition to organic, protecting the co-op’s members from the risks of avian flu, and how branching out into oat-based dairy alternatives is supporting Organic Valley’s existing network of producers.
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Photo courtesy of Daniel Quiceno, Unsplash
