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Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>“Cooperatives have come a long way from their beginnings in the 19th Century. Cooperatives help workers improve their livelihoods and protect their interests.<\/em> Cooperatives empower workers to own a share of the business and to govern themselves. Cooperatives are organizations of people who have the same needs.\u00a0 In a 1997 article in the ICA Review, J. Langmore says that cooperatives promote \u201cthe material conditions and well-being of members through their acting in concert; members [have] a greater say over their lives through their voluntary association in organizations controlled freely and democratically by their members.\u201d “\u2460<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Cooperatives\nprovide a method for farmers to join together in an ‘association’, through\nwhich a group of farmers can acquire a better outcome, typically financial,\nthan by going alone. This approach is aligned to the concept of economies\nof scale<\/a> and can also be related as a form of economic synergy<\/a>,\nwhere “two or more agents working together to produce a result not\nobtainable by any of the agents independently”. An important strength\nof a cooperative for the farmer is that they retain the governance of the\nassociation, thereby ensuring they have ultimate ownership and control. This\nensures that the profit reimbursement (either through the dividend payout or\nrebate) is shared only amongst the farmer members.” \u2461<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cooperative\nPrinciples<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n “Cooperatives around\nthe world operate according to the same set of core principles and values,\nadopted by the International Co-operative Alliance<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. Open and Voluntary Membership<\/strong> 2. Democratic Member Control<\/strong> 3. Members\u2019 Economic Participation<\/strong> 4. Autonomy and Independence<\/strong> 5. Education, Training, and\nInformation<\/strong> 6. Collaboration Among Cooperatives<\/strong> 7. Concern for Community<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Cooperatives work for the\nsustainable development of their communities through policies supported by the\nmembership.” \u2462<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cooperatives are clearly a superior and\nmore equitable business model over other more capitalistic types of business\norganization. Cooperatives allow Shareholders\nto share the wealth and can bring economic stimulus to a wide swath of society\nrather than further enriching just the top few percent like the majority of\nother corporate business models. \nHowever, please don’t confuse the Cooperative Model with Socialism or\nCommunism as the Cooperative Model relies on local control not central control\nlike those more oppressive systems. Cooperatives are voluntary, socialism and\nCommunism are not. Collaboration works\nbecause everyone involved initially agrees that they are doing what is best for\nthe Greatest and Highest Good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Competition Versus Collaboration<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n So,\nif the Cooperative model is so superior, why isn’t every business organized\nunder it? There are several reasons, but\nthese reasons may at first seem to be antithetical to modern business thinking. This is because in western capitalistic\nsocieties we have been brain washed and programmed into thinking and believing\nthat competition is good. Friendly\ncompetition is good and healthy, but when it comes to the cut-throat competition\nthat modern capitalistic businesses have evolved into, the result is that in\nthe quest for the all-mighty dollar precludes doing what is best for all. These shameless entities are doing anything and\neverything they can to out-perform their competition. The unfortunate reality\nis that these modern business practices have evolved into a system that is not\nsustainable. If you look at the current western business practices based on the\ncompetition model, they have produced a world \nwhere our water is polluted, our air is polluted, our arable farmland is\npolluted, and we are eating food-like products filled with chemicals,\npreservatives, herbicides, pesticides and heavy metals. Big Pharma, in its quest for more dollars,\ncreates customers not cures. Big Oil\nwill stop at nothing to squeeze more crude oil out of our planet with fracking\nthat causes earthquakes and water pollution, oil spill pollution, and the release\nof chemical agents that further befoul our oxygen deprived air. Our forests are being decimated and burned in\nthe quest for the all-mighty dollar and our food has been tainted by big\nagricultural monopolies that utilize harmful chemicals to kill the microbiome\nin our soil to the extent that our arable land is rendered useless without the\naddition of more deadly chemicals. We\nhave fluoride in our water. “In terms of acute toxicity, fluoride is more\ntoxic than lead, but slightly less toxic than arsenic. This is why fluoride has long been used in\nrodenticides and pesticides to kill pests like rats and insects. It is also why accidents involving\nover-ingestion of fluoridated dental products – including fluoride gels,\nfluoride supplements, and fluoridated water can cause serious poisoning\nincidents, including death.” \u2463 <\/p>\n\n\n\n In\naddition we have mercury in our vaccines, and aluminum in our deodorants, two\nmetallic elements that have no reason to be in the human body and can end up in\nthe brain. “Aluminum\nis a known neurotoxin and occupational exposure to aluminum has been implicated\nin neurological disease, including Alzheimer\u2019s disease.” \u2464 “Many studies show that high exposure to\nmercury induces changes in the central nervous system, potentially resulting in\nirritability, fatigue, behavioral changes, tremors, headaches, hearing and\ncognitive loss, dysarthria, incoordination, hallucinations, and death.\u2465 Remember\nthat “Mad Hatters” became that\nway due to mercury exposure. All of this is a result of modern corporate\ncompetition. From first grade onwards we\nare indoctrinated that competition is good, but modern corporations have taken\nthis to the extreme while disregarding the negative effects on our health and\nplanet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “In the\n1987 movie Wall Street, Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko gave an insightful\nspeech where he said, “Greed<\/em>, for lack of\na better<\/em> word, is good<\/em>.” He went on to make the point that greed<\/em> is a clean drive that “captures the essence\nof the evolutionary spirit.”\u2466 “As markets rely\non trust and cooperation, unmitigated greed has the potential to undermine a\nfree economy” \u2467 as evidenced by current global conditions. This is where we can turn to Cooperatives to\nreverse this reality because the more evolved voluntary collective mind-set of\nthe collaborators will minimize the greed factor for the benefit of the\ngreatest and highest good for all\ninvolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Federal\nVersus Local Control<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Another\nproblem with big money monopolies is that they have the resources and lobbyists\nto influence the Federal Government at the highest level. The Federal\nGovernment, unfortunately, is manipulated by these Lobbyists because they can\nhelp candidates get elected through campaign contributions and other\n“perks” that drastically affect how Congress people vote. Whatever\nhappened to anti-monopoly Laws? It is sad that these laws have been so ignored to\nthe extent that they have allowed 4 or 5 big Ag companies the control over the\nmajority of seeds supplied to farmers. \nThis is one area that Cooperatives can be the most effective. Seed supplies should have the option of being open sourced like they were a century\nago before the seed industry was hijacked by big Ag. Open source seed frees the\nseed from non-propagation agreements for growers so they can reap the economic\nbenefits and other positive attributes that are inherent when growing their own\nseed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 21st Century designed and promulgated\nCooperatives can be organized with Local Control so there can be no mandates\nfrom national or federal monopolists to govern their use and productivity. Sure, there are Federal Statutes that have to\nbe followed, but Cooperatives can own shares in other Cooperatives so everyone is\nworking toward the same end, and that end is increased economic stimulus for\nall. Cooperatives are even exempt from some Monopoly Laws because they are not\nseen as a threat to a national agenda. Cooperatives\ncan develop and distribute open source seeds that anyone can use without the\nrestraints of non-propagation agreements required by big Ag. In addition, Cooperatives can spread and share\nthe most effective regenerative agricultural methods that have the ability to remediate\nour soils and water damaged by all the chemicals used by big Ag’s GMO seeds. By working together, Cooperatives can share\nBest Practices, Standard Operating Procedures, cultivars, machinery, sales and\nmarketing of the raw materials they produce, and most important of all, the substantial\nfinancial rewards from all of their hard work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nPositive Future of Cooperatives<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The nascent\nHemp Industry has the potential to become the next Trillion Dollar Industry in\nthe United States. This is a huge pie,\nand with collaboration utilizing the Cooperative Business Model the pie will\nbecome even larger and Cooperatives will share it to everyone’s positive benefit. The Cooperative Business Model is the most fair\nto everyone involved. Yes, we need to\nshare the expenses, but we are also collaborating to share the fiscal\nrewards. In a Limited Cooperative\nAssociation the collaborators includes the Patrons (the people doing the work)\nand the forward thinking Investors who share in this positive big picture\nvision of the future and the potential (substantial) fiscal rewards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The current Big\nAg monopolized path of 21st Century Agriculture is not sustainable. As forward thinker, inventor and World\nCitizen advocate Buckminster Fuller has observed, “Cooperation has become\nthe optimum survival strategy”.\u2468 If Earth Citizens\nwant to not self-destruct then we must change our thinking from competition to\ncollaboration. The world does not need greater concentrations of power, by\nmultinational banks and the Federal Reserve, but much more widely dispersed\npower and the shared economic benefits that Cooperative can provide. Cooperatives are the most logical means to\nachieve this end. If we take a step\nback, this economic evolution really begins with taking control of the taxes we\npay and those taxes deposited into publically owned public banks instead of the\nbiggest Ponzi Scheme in the world, the Federal Reserve. Without local public control over funds generated\nby taxes a better future is drastically hindered, but that is a discussion for\nanother time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is not an\nempty request for change, it is an imperative that will positively impact the\nplanet and those of us who live here. The best way to minimize the influence of\nmisanthropic companies is to not patronize them. This unprecedented opportunity\nfor our Planet’s Economic Revolution starts now with Hemp and Cooperatives! If\nyou truly want to save the planet for your children and grandchildren you will\nbe intrinsically impelled to collaborate with us. We\nreally do not have another viable choice as positive as a collaborative world\npowered by the united masses and not being subject to the greed and vagaries of\nthe current big-money monopolists. The\nlocal economic stimulus provided by locally controlled Agricultural Hemp\nCooperatives is designed to buoy up the economic status of rural America. Rural Citizens across the planet have been\nmarginalized and excluded for way too long from the prosperity they deserve for\nall of their hard work, a fact that I can attest to from firsthand\nexperience. With Agricultural Hemp\nCooperatives as a beginning, we can realistically provide an economic\nenvironment that will at last allow rural America (and eventually the rest of\nthe world) to be free from the chains of economic oppression imposed by the\ncurrent monopolistic corporations and start to thrive. It is for everyone’s (except the greedy\nmonopolists) benefit to begin co-creating our planet into the Edenic Utopia\nthat is has the potential to be. The\nresurgence of the Hemp Industry coupled with the economic equity of 21st\nCentury Cooperatives is an unprecedented opportunity that we may never see\nagain. Let’s not waste it! We must collaboratively act to fully utilize\nit for the Greatest and Highest Good for All!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Please Forward and Share this with anyone that wants to help\nCo-Create a Better World. Thanks!♥<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a9\n2019 CHPC<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Written by Duane Stjernholm – Co-Founder and Operator of the Colorado Hemp Processing Cooperative<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Now Accepting Shareholders and responding to inquiries at:<\/p>\n\n\n\n CO<\/strong>HP<\/strong>C<\/strong>.ORG<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n References<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2460 https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/History_of_the_cooperative_movement<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2461 https:\/\/www.culturalsurvival.org\/publications\/cultural-survival-quarterly\/cooperatives-short-\n history<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2462\n https:\/\/www.electric.coop\/seven-cooperative-principles%E2%80%8B\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2463\n http:\/\/fluoridealert.org\/issues\/health\/<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2464\n https:\/\/www.sciencedaily.com\/releases\/2014\/02\/140212093300.htm<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2465 https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC3395437\/<\/a>\\<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2466 https:\/\/www.thebalance.com\/greed-is-good-or-is-it-quote-and-meaning-3306247<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2467 http:\/\/www.valuesandcapitalism.com\/greed-is-not-good-but-self-interest-is\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nMembership in a cooperative is open to all persons who can reasonably use its\nservices and stand willing to accept the responsibilities of membership,\nregardless of race, religion, gender, or economic circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nCooperatives are democratic organizations controlled by their members, who\nactively participate in setting policies and making decisions. Elected\nrepresentatives (directors\/trustees) are elected from among the membership and\nare accountable to the membership. In primary cooperatives, members have equal\nvoting rights (one member, one vote); cooperatives at other levels are\norganized in a democratic manner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nMembers contribute equitably to, and democratically control, the capital of\ntheir cooperative. At least part of that capital remains the common property of\nthe cooperative. Members allocate surpluses for any or all of the following\npurposes: developing the cooperative; setting up reserves; benefiting members\nin proportion to their transactions with the cooperative; and supporting other\nactivities approved by the membership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nCooperatives are autonomous, self-help organizations controlled by their\nmembers. If they enter into agreements with other organizations, including\ngovernments, or raise capital from external sources, they do so on terms that\nensure democratic control as well as their unique identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nEducation and training for members, elected representatives\n(directors\/trustees), CEOs, and employees help them effectively contribute to\nthe development of their cooperatives. Communications about the nature and\nbenefits of cooperatives, particularly with the general public and opinion\nleaders, helps boost cooperative understanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nBy working together through local, national, regional, and international\nstructures, cooperatives improve services, bolster local economies, and deal\nmore effectively with social and community needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n