ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a comparative case study that focuses on one particular ownership structure—farmer professional cooperatives (FPCs). FPCs integrate food production, processing, and marketing, and serve to vertically integrate millions of smallholders into ecological food production and distribution. Building on the theoretical framework proposed by van der Ploeg et al. (2002), we assess the multifunctionality and rural sustainability of three organic FPCs by comparing their deepening, broadening, and regrounding strategies. We find that they have made significant economic, social, and environmental contributions to local rural development. However, the economic benefits of the cooperatives are not distributed equally among their members.
