Carl Casale 2016-09-05 00:18:41
We’ve always known it was true. Now we have the facts to back it up: Cooperatives are a significant engine, driving economic power well beyond the farm gate.
Those of us who are part of the cooperative system — as producer-owners, local employees and directors — experience co-op economic value firsthand every day. It comes through quality products delivered where and when you need them. It’s in the confidence you have in the crop production, energy and risk management experts you count on. It’s in global market access and processing that adds value. It’s in the patronage you earn on the business you do with the cooperative system. It’s in the long-term value of your equity stake in a company you own and your voice in cooperative governance. It’s in being an owner of a major local, national or global asset that exists expressly to add value for you.
But what about the “multiplier effect”? How do we quantify the significant economic value cooperatives deliver in our local communities and beyond as they contribute to regional, state and national economies?
At Your CHS Town Hall meetings a year ago, our member- owners asked us to make telling the cooperative value story a priority. We went to work on several fronts, including quantifying the big picture of the cooperative system’s economic impact. We knew we needed to demonstrate value, not only for current and future member-owners in the system’s home communities, but also in critical sectors where telling the cooperative economic impact story matters tremendously. We needed to reach elected officials who create laws that affect the system and its owners and those who craft regulations that impact our operations.
To accomplish this, we engaged a leading global organization to undertake a deep analysis of CHS federal and state economic contributions for fiscal 2014, a recent year with fairly typical financial performance and business operation. We gave the consulting team a mountain of numbers, including employment data, U.S. sales figures, tax contributions related to our operations, capital investments and grain purchases.
After meticulous analysis, what the team concluded far exceeded our own expectations. Some of those data points are included in the cover story of this issue of C. One of the most telling for me was our employment impact. While we employed just over 12,000 people in the U.S. in 2014, our direct, indirect and induced economic activity supported more than 60,770 jobs — a factor of 5 — more than twice the overall U.S. employment multiplier of 2.5.
In coming months, we’ll share additional detail from that study with our owners and with targeted audiences who need to know just how great an impact the cooperative system has on the economies of towns, states and our entire nation. Longer term, we’ll be looking for ways to use this model to help the broader agricultural cooperative sector tell its story.
October has long been commemorated as Cooperative Month in the United States, providing a natural time to highlight this business model’s contributions. Based on the story these numbers tell, it’s clear to me that every day is cooperative day in the U.S. economy.
Published by CHS Inc. View All Articles.
This page can be found at https://c.chsinc.com/article/Cooperative+Value%3A+The+Numbers+Add+Up/2577377/335924/article.html.