For Michael, Curtis, and Nicole, sharing decision-making power with a co-operative was an obvious fit. It reflects their values, their friendship, and allows them to share risk, capital, knowledge, and networks.
“Cost is a big barrier for farming, especially new farmers, cost and knowledge,” Michael said. “The skill share part, if you have like a couple people in the group that have more knowledge around farming or have done farming, whereas some other people maybe don’t, really helps if you’re a co-operative… we [also always] have someone to reach out to, because we just have a bigger network of people with more of us involved.”
“I think the co-ownership model incentivizes people to show up in ways that they might not show up if they weren’t part owners, so really, we just all are incentivized to show up in ways that we can and use our strengths to make sure that everything is done and completed that we need,” said Curtis.
Read the rest at Co-operatives First
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