AMHERST, Oct. 4, 2024 – This week, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development (RD) State Director for Southern New England Scott Soares marked the first day of the Fiscal Year by honoring the long-standing contributions of rural cooperatives throughout the region and announcing more than $870,000 being invested in the region. This is part of a national announcement where USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack earlier this week issued a USDA proclamation to recognize October 2024 as the Department’s 60th anniversary of National Cooperative Month.
Since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA has invested more than $17 billion in loans and grants to spur economic development, catalyze rural prosperity and advance equity through rural cooperatives.
“Cooperatives are the backbone of our nation and are central to President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to rebuild the economy from the bottom up and middle out,” Secretary Vilsack said. “Today we celebrate our partnerships with these organizations and renew our commitment to champion the vital work they accomplish in building local wealth, creating new opportunities and serving the unique needs of rural communities throughout the country.”
“Cooperatives serve as one of the most important partners we have when it comes to delivering critical goods and services to our rural stakeholders,” State Director Soares said. “Each and every day, cooperatives play a critical role in sustaining and improving economic opportunities and advancing equity throughout Southern New England.”
This year’s theme for the month-long celebration is “The Future is Cooperative,” acknowledging the unique and essential role cooperatives play in providing clean, affordable energy, increasing economic opportunities and improving the quality of life for people in rural America.
In his proclamation, Vilsack noted that more than 30,000 cooperatives throughout the U.S. account for more than 2 million jobs and generate more than $700 billion in annual revenue. Secretary Vilsack also noted that USDA has been serving the nation’s farmer cooperatives for 98 years with cooperative statistics, research, technical assistance and informational products.
This year, National Cooperative Month comes on the heels of President Biden’s historic announcement of more than $7.3 billion in financing for rural electric cooperatives to build clean energy for rural communities through the Empowering Rural America (New ERA) program. Together, New ERA and other investments in rural clean energy in the President’s Inflation Reduction Act make up the largest investment in rural electrification and in electric cooperatives since the 1936 Rural Electrification Act.
Examples of USDA Rural Development partnering with Cooperatives in Southern New England include:
Cooperative Development Institute (CDI): USDA Rural Development funding, totaling more than $870,000 will be used to provide technical assistance, training and work to build resiliency throughout the Northeast. Specifically, CDI will utilize $200,000 in Rural Business Development Grant (RBDG) funding to address critical challenges and needs of rural communities in their service area (MA, ME, VT and NY). These challenges include: concentration of asset ownership by outside investors, the decline of locally-owned businesses, such as farm, forest and fishery enterprises; the loss of jobs and community resources that follow from the shuttering of locally-owned businesses; high levels of unemployment and underemployment; poverty and low incomes; limited workforce skills; and the urgent need for long-term affordable housing. Additionally, CDI will use $175,000 in USDA Social Disadvantaged Group Grant funding to support cooperative enterprises in the Northeast to deploy cooperative business models, ensuring a realistic, cumulative approach that enables participants to meet basic needs and increase economic prosperity. Finally, $498,000 grant through the Rural Community Development Initiative (RCDI) which awards grants to housing and community intermediary organizations. These grants assist with building capacity of nonprofit organizations, low-income rural communities, and federally recognized tribes to undertake projects related to housing, community facilities and economic development in rural areas.
Cooperatives are businesses owned and controlled by the people who use them. They differ from other businesses because they are member-owned and operate for the benefit of members, rather than to earn profits for investors.
Cooperatives are a trusted, democratic, time-tested business model that builds local wealth for members and communities. Organized to meet the economic needs of its member-owners, a cooperative is a particularly resilient business model and embodies the concept of self-help.
USDA Rural Development offers a variety of financial assistance and services to assist rural businesses, including cooperatives and agricultural producers. For more information on cooperatives, visit USDA Rural Development Cooperative Services.
USDA touches the lives of all Americans each day in so many positive ways. In the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA is transforming America’s food system with a greater focus on more resilient local and regional food production, fairer markets for all producers, ensuring access to safe, healthy and nutritious food in all communities, building new markets and streams of income for farmers and producers using climate-smart food and forestry practices, making historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy capabilities in rural America, and committing to equity across the Department by removing systemic barriers and building a workforce more representative of America. To learn more, visit www.usda.gov.
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