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General Resources
Feasibility of a California Energy Feedstock Supply Cooperative
The San Joaquin Air Pollution Control District banned the burning of stumps in orchard removal as of June 1, 2007 and established a total ban on burning of all orchard waste effective June 1, 2010. There are about one million acres of deciduous fruit and nut trees in California, producing an estimated 700,000 tons of prunings annually. In the past, much of this orchard waste has been burned in the field. This article examines a series of Energy Feedstock Supply Cooperatives as a means of helping farmers dispose of the orchard waste using methods that are both environmentally sustainable and income generating. This mediates the costs associated with meeting the environmental air quality mandates. The report discusses the financial issues involved and the diverse uses of orchard residue, including their potential for conversion into energy and for foreign export. Additionally this report includes comprehensive materials needed for the organization of an Energy Feedstock Supply Cooperative, including sample articles of incorporation, bylaws, membership application forms and a membership agreement.
USDA Rural Development Library of Publications
A link to all of USDA's publications, including such topics as Biofuels/Renewable Energy, Farm Supplies and Cooperative Management.
University of Wisconsin Research on the Economic Impact of Cooperatives
The cooperative ownership model is used in a wide variety of contexts in the United States, ranging from the production and distribution of energy to delivery of home health care services for the elderly. Although cooperative businesses have been responsible for many market innovations and corrections of market imperfections, little is known about their impact as an economic sector. Until this project, no comprehensive set of national-level statistics had been compiled about U.S. cooperative businesses, their importance to the U.S. economy, or their impact on the lives and businesses of American citizens.
This report describes and quantifies the magnitude of economic activity accounted for by U.S. cooperative businesses. It describes the legal and economic characteristics that were used to define cooperative firms; methods used to measure cooperative activity across all sectors of the US economy; and approaches developed to collect appropriate data. Finally, it provides a census of cooperatives, summarizes the extent of their activity by economic sector, and measures their impact on aggregate income and employment.