This document summarizes discussions from the 1st Annual Rural Research Workshop regarding challenges facing rural communities in Eastern Canada and the potential role of agricultural cooperatives. Key points discussed include farming succession issues, consolidation in the food sector, and a declining cooperative sector in Nova Scotia. The document explores different definitions and models of cooperatives and questions around how cooperatives could help localize food systems and strengthen rural communities.

1. From Policy to Research and Back Again
1st Annual Rural Research Workshop
By Greg Cameron
Foundation Sessions Findings
Farming succession challenges.
Dependence on traditional extractive industries
Cost of production issues (regulations, input costs).
Keeping land under agricultural use.
Consolidation in the food retail sector (e.g. ‘S&S’).
The need for a regional market infrastructure.
The proliferation of lifestyle farms.
The burgeoning farmers’ markets.

2. Emerging Questions from
Foundation Sessions
How does a more localized food model fit within a
free trade system (e.g. high reliance on food imports)?
What role can the co‐operative sector potentially play
in localizing the regional food system in eastern
Canada?
50 Co‐operatives in NS Agriculture
Bras D’or Producers 15 Farm Supplies Co‐ops
NS Animal Breeders Co‐op 8 Farmers’ Market Co‐ops
Ranchers Co‐op Cross Roads Blueberry Co‐op
Co‐op Atlantic Organic Blueberry Co‐op
Brookside Co‐op Abattoir Scotsburn Dairy Co‐
Scotian Gold Co‐operative operative
9 Pasture Co‐operatives Farmer’s Dairy Co‐operative

3. Canadian Centre for Policy
Alternatives: J. Jacobs (2006)
In Nova Scotia the number of co‐operatives
(excluding credit unions) has stagnated and
membership has dropped from 61,000 in 1995 to
37,000 in 2003 – a 39% decline – and in other Atlantic
provinces.
Less of the provincial economy is democratically
controlled and co‐operatives are having a hard time
attracting new blood, especially young people.
Canadian Centre for Policy
Alternatives: J. Jacobs (2006)
Co‐operatives could play a crucial role in developing
sustainable communities, but they are going to need
public support and government policies that prioritize
sustainable and economic development.
For co‐operatives to increase their clout in shaping a
progressive public policy, they must strengthen their
connections with the environment, labour and social
justice movements.

4. Competing Definitions of
Co‐operatives
Formal and organizational definition:
A co‐operative is an economic enterprise made up of several
voluntarily associated individuals whose aim is not to obtain the
maximum profit from the capital outlay but to increase the
income derived from the work of its members, or to reduce the
latter’s expenditure, by means of common economic
management (Chayanov, [1927] 1991: 14).
Social definition:
A co‐operative is a voluntary association of some individuals
which aims, by its joint efforts, to combat the exploitation by
capital and to improve the position of its members through the
production, exchange and distribution of economic benefits,
that is, as producers, consumers, or sellers of
manpower.(Chayanov, [1927] 1991: 14).
Schools of Co‐operation
The Co‐operative Enterprise School views co‐
operatives as voluntary associations of independent
economic units (e.g. farms, businesses). Its origins are
in the Rochdale pioneers. The Rochdale principles
include one person one vote irrespective of shares
held, limited interest on shares, open membership,
continual education, dividends according to
patronage and co‐operative solidarity (Helm 1968).

5. Schools of Co‐operation
The Co‐operative Commonwealth School is not
satisfied with improving members’ economic position
within the existing economic system but wants, as a
long term objective, to eliminate the competitive
capitalistic system and replace it by an economic
system based on mutual co‐operation. Its origins are
in utopian socialism (Helm 1968).
Schools of Co‐operation
The Socialist Co‐operative School views co‐
operatives as serving not only the interests of its
members but also the working class and wider society
in transition to socialism. Its origins are in
revolutionary socialism (Helm 1968).

6. Truro Roundtable September 2010.
Problems identified included:
The weak technical and financial capacities of the
Atlantic Canadian co‐operative councils.
A limited government extension system.
Limited knowledge of the co‐operative model in the
NS Department of Agriculture as well as in
community development business corporations.
Truro Roundtable September 2010.
Problems identified included:
The need to develop a co‐operative regional
development policy for Eastern Canada.
The need for a clearer educational focus as to the
difference between the market economy and the co‐
operative system.
The need to understand the effects of financial sector
speculation on local communities.

7. Conceptual issues
What would a social democratic agrarian program
look like in Nova Scotia and beyond?
NS Co‐operative Council food producer co‐operative
concept.
The scaling up of small scale forms (e.g. co‐operative
land trusts, urban gardens, CSA‐supported marketing
co‐operatives, foreign models).
Role of co‐operatives in a ‘multifunctional’
agriculture.
Policy transition questions around productivist and
multifunctional pathways.