Agricultural cooperatives: Finding strength in numbers
Smallholder farmers grow a major share of the food consumed around
the world and preserve rich, biodiverse landscapes.1
But despite their
fundamental importance, many small farmers lead lives of deepening
vulnerability – caught between subsistence strategies threatened by
ecological degradation and commercial food systems that devalue them
as cheap labour. Alternative agricultural models are urgently needed.
One long-running movement still shows major untapped potential: that