20 Years of Cooperation

1988:

• Frustrated by the staggering number of family farms disappearing in America each year, a group of struggling Southwest Wisconsin farmers band together to form CROPP Cooperative¹. These 57 produce and dairy farmers make a commitment to a sustainable approach to farming in order to protect the land for future generations. Their mission was, and is to this day, to create and operate a marketing cooperative which promotes regional farm diversity and economic stability by the use of organic agricultural methods and the sale of certified-organic foods.
• In an unprecedented move in the dairy industry, CROPP commits to setting a fair and stable pay-price to its farmer members for organic milk. At the time, CROPP's target pay-price was $17.50 per cwt (cwt = one hundred pounds of milk) when conventional milk was $12.00 per cwt.
• From their first load of milk, CROPP has processed their products through existing, local processors to reduce their investment in "brick and mortar" and in order to create a regional production model. This model also helps to reduce the distance products travels from farm to table and results in fresher products. To date, CROPP has been instrumental in influencing 91 processors to become certified organic.
• CROPP produces the first nationally-available certified organic cheeses
• CROPP helps establish organic standards in the state of Wisconsin in collaboration with national and international organic organizations, the state legislature, and local universities.
• The co-op ends its first year with 57 farmer-members and annual revenues of $106,795.

1989

• CROPP purchases the La Farge Creamery building, the Co-op's first facility.
• Partnership with the National Farmers Organization (NFO) means survival for the Co-op's early network of dairy farms.
• After one year of operation, CROPP finishes with 34 farmer-members and sales climb to $412,022.

1990

• Organic Valley brand is created with a $20,000 Agricultural Diversification Grant from the State Department of Agriculture.
• This year marks the co-op's first year of Organic Valley branded sales.
• The Co-op ends the year with 35 farmer-members and $723,686 in sales.

1991

• Organic Valley cheese is distributed in 20 states, including the East and West coasts.
• The year ends with 31 farmer-members and sales top at $1.2 million.

1992

• Organic Valley produces the first nationally-available certified organic butter available in America.
• The year ends with 34 farmer-members; sales reach $1.9 million.

1993

• Egg pool is formed with ­5 Wisconsin producers. Today, the Egg Pool has 87 members in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Pennsylvania.
• Sales reach $2.6 million and CROPP ends the year with 49 producers ²

1 CROPP is an acronym for Coulee Region Organic Produce Pool; later updated to Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools. The Co-op uses the term "pool" to refer to a group of farmers in one geographical area who "pool" their production.

2 Between 1993 and 2003, Organic Valley reported its total farmer numbers based on farms per product type rather than number of individual farm memberships to the Co-op. For example, a farm that produced both milk and eggs for the Co-op would count as two producers. This was done to illustrate the variety of products offered by Organic Valley, and to track the number of farms producing each type of product. Since 2004, Organic Valley has tracked each farmer-member as one farm, whether they produce for one or multiple product pools in the Co-op.