To mark Co-op month, we honor James Wadsworth, the USDA Cooperative Services Branch Chief. Jim has been the caretaker of the Agricultural Cooperative Statistics program, which provides aggregated data on and to the agricultural co-op community. This time series is 100 years old and allows cooperatives to compare operations to others in the industry. The annual Top 100 list of the country’s largest cooperatives is derived from this data, giving a snapshot of how cooperatives can scale and still be democratically controlled by members while providing benefits and support to their individual farm operations.
Jim’s co-op origins began years before joining USDA. Jim grew up on his family’s dairy farm in rural Connecticut, where he learned about marketing and farm supply cooperatives. After college, he went to work for AgWay farm supply cooperative in New York. This hands-on experience proved invaluable when he joined USDA’s Cooperative Services Division of Agricultural Cooperative Service, the predecessor agency to Rural Development’s Cooperative Services Branch.
Jim began his public service with USDA, working to provide educational material and research necessary for cooperative members, managers and board members to make important decisions about their cooperative’s operations. Notable examples include the 1996 merger of three dairy genetics co-ops in the northeast with Genex of Louisiana (now part of Cooperative Resources International). In 2007 he worked with 12 cooperatives to develop Mid-South Marketing Partners, a purchasing cooperative of cooperatives.
In May of 2004 Pilgrims Pride, Inc. notified growers that contracts would terminate effective September 1, 2004. This left 155 Shenandoah Valley turkey growers without access to processing or a market for their birds. Jim Wadsworth and colleague Bill Brockhouse (retired) worked with growers to develop a value-added turkey processing cooperative, which began processing as the Virginia Poultry Growers Cooperative just a short 181 days later and remains in operation.
Jim not only supports cooperatives at work, but also on his personal time. He has led a group of USDA runners to participate in the Cooperative Development Foundation’s annual 5K fun run in Washington DC – and they have the trophies to prove it. In addition, Jim has been a supporter of FFA which leads educational efforts for American’s next generation of farmers and leaders in the agricultural community.
In 2017, USDA awarded Jim the “Unsung Hero Award” in recognition of service. This month the National Cooperative Business Association/CLUSA honored Jim with the inaugural “Cooperative Service Award” for his long-standing service to the cooperative community.
