“One Farm at a Time”

By David Thompson, President, Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation

For over 150 years, food cooperatives have had a stake in agriculture, farming and
farmers. The relationship between the members of cooperatives and farmers has always
been strong. Our shared program with the Davis Food Co-op and Sacramento Natural
Foods Co-op, of “One Farm at a Time” is just the latest action by cooperatives to directly
link consumers to farmers.

Starting with Good Humus in rural Yolo County, “One Farm at a Time” will raise funds
from cooperatives, their member, shoppers, suppliers, vendors and funders. We will use
those funds to purchase either easements or the land itself to ensure that farmland will be
perpetually saved and farmed organically by family farmers.

“One Farm at a Time” is a local co-op based program. To learn about what your
own co-op is doing please visit www.davisfood.coop or www.sacfoodcoop.com.

The "One Farm at a Time" program has received donations of: $5,000 from Lundberg
Farms and Veritable Vegetable and $3,000 from Equal Exchange as a result of the efforts
of Paul Cultrera, General Manager of Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op.$5,000 was
contributed by Equity Trust as a result of the efforts of Jeff and Annie Main of Good
Humus. Local events at both co-ops have also raised funds through screenings of a film
being made about Good Humus. The contributions and support keep coming in.

“One Farm at a Time” was initiated through the collaboration of; the Yolo County Land
Trust, Tuleyome, Good Humus, the David Food Co-op, the Sacramento Natural Foods
Co-op and the Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation. Together we plan to protect Good
Humus as a permanent organic family farm by purchasing an easement on the entire
farm. We will work together on this farm and many more in the future. While starting
in Yolo County, TPCF intends to replicate the idea in other parts of California and later
throughout the country.

Let us for a moment go back in history to see what cooperatives and cooperators can
achieve. The early objectives of the Rochdale Pioneers in 1844 were to purchase land
and cultivate it for the members of the co-op. In the 1860’s representative of many
co-ops met at Jumbo Farm in Middleton, Lancashire to decide how to establish a
wholesale cooperative that ensured good and pure quality farm products. Beginning
then, cooperatives began to buy farmland to control the quality of the supply.
Today, a subsidiary, Cooperative Farming manages over 50,000 acres throughout
Britain. Their program “Grown by Us” is very popular with British consumers.

Another program that cooperatives played a major role in was that of the founding
of the Garden City Movement. Letchworth is the model town in England of 30,000
people where all the land in the city is owned by a nonprofit corporation. The town is
permanently protected by a greenbelt. Since 1905, 2,500 acres of the Greenbelt have been
farmed.

Clearly, cooperatives and cooperators made good decisions about protecting farmland

over 150 years ago. Their vision still holds today. Through collaboration and the “One
Farm at a Time” program our partnership is laying the groundwork to take actions today
to protect farmland tomorrow. Please join with us in our efforts.

For almost a half century, Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation (TPCF) has been
supporting food cooperatives and other types of cooperatives. We pioneered the efforts
to educate the consumer about the role of cooperatives in the economy and to bring about
new innovations which bring reality to good ideas. More than a decade ago we initiated
the Co-op Farmland Trust to foster a change in farming. Through the 27 Cooperative
Community Funds we host throughout the US we help food co-ops sustain organic
farming.

TPCF uses its $2 million in assets to fuel each of the cooperative development funds
in the US. A number of those funds help community groups purchase land to protect it
for use as farming forever. TPCF is the largest provider of equity capital to cooperative
development in the country. TPCF is the largest US co-op investor (over $300,000) in the
dairy cooperative Organic Valley. TPCF’s investment fund’s those farmers who change
from conventional to organic farming.

To make a contribution to our efforts visit www.community.coop/onefarmatatime or
send a donation to the Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation, 216 F. Street, PMB 1844,
Davis, CA 95616. To learn about our other activities please visit our web site at
www.community.coop.

TPCF is a 501©3 non profit organization and all contributions are tax deductible.

David J. Thompson is President of the Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation and can
be reached at dthomcoop@aol.com or 530-757-2233. David was born in Blackpool,
England to a family that was members of many cooperatives. His parents both worked for
the Blackpool Cooperative Society and the society owned its own dairy farm in Staining.