(Ed. note. IATP's President, Jim Harkness, is blogging from China as he meets with experts on China's food and farm system)
Saturday Sept. 22
Today I went to a half-day meeting to discuss the Guoren Rural-Urban Mutual Aid Co-operative. Professor He Huili of China Agricultural University organized the meeting to review the rocky first three months of the co-op, and get ideas for how it might become more viable.
Guoren is a sort of a hybrid, intended to provide a market and a fair price for various organic farms and farmer-owned rural enterprises, and also to guarantee safe and healthy food for its urban members. Farmers join by committing a certain amount of their produce, urban members (there are currently 79) pay 100 Chinese yuan for a share in the co-op. Guoren's problem has been lack of activity: the members just aren't buying. Meanwhile, one of the co-op's rural organizers described ambitious plans for processing, handicrafts, countryside day tours, etc. as the next phase of development.
It was a rather contentious discussion. An academic expert said that Guoren was trying to do too much. A shareholder said that maybe instead of talking to experts, the co-op should have a full meeting of its members to discuss what to do. Someone questioned the workability of a single co-op with producer and consumer members. There was disagreement about whether Guoren should be a charity or a business. A successful commercial market garden businessman offered to take over running the whole operation. Etc, etc.
After half a day, I was exhausted and a bit frustrated, but to Professor he's credit, she took it all in very patiently. When I made my exit after lunch, she was re-convening the group to go over the co-op business plan. On Tuesday, we're meeting at the store to talk some more.
