Coops have served a purpose for many years and have allowed the farmer to understand the business world involved with agriculture better if the individual chooses to learn. That being said the day of the coop has evolved to the point they need to spend profits on infrastructure to compete with private industry and cannot return patronage in a manner that will satisfy most. The fact that we in turn pay income tax on dividends not received (typical cash dividends is 20 to 40% of total). I believe this is where the domestic activity production deduction came from as an effort to even out the tax liability.

I feel strongly that as a consumer i have to deal with the low cost provider that also supply's the service necessary to meet my individual needs. I deal with two competent coops and two well run privates. I find that the competition between them varies only by the time frame that they secured there individual supply's which on occasion is significant. Service is similar but I do have favorites . They are all well run and do ask for some loyalty, I try not to move frequently but do price each annually for the inputs I need. I purchase from each depending on an individual need for a specific time frame.

While I understand individual mistrust or dislike of coops on a local basis, overall I believe the coop have been the competition that keeps privates from collusion and price competitive. Perhaps I am naïve but that is how I see it. Collusion is illegal but it happens every Monday morning in a neighboring community of roughly 60,000 residents with local gas pricing.