Cooperative Evolution Farmer cooperatives in the U.S. were historically conflicted between serving their farmer members and operating as competitive business enterprises. The recent change in U.S. tax law favoring cooperatives comes at an odd time because industrialization in agriculture has forced many of those to in fact choose to operate like any other agribusiness. In fact, journalist Nate Wilson recently said of the Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) cooperative, “You can’t look at DFA as anything now but a corporation…it owns or controls entities up and down the entire dairy industry supply chain.” From a historical standpoint, the tax policy benefit just handed to cooperatives over other agribusinesses appears t...