ABSTRACT
The fundamental rationale for group action among farmers with regard to the marketing of their products is their disparity in size and scope of activity as individual sellers compared with the buyers they face. Farmers are many in number yet relatively small in size compared to crop and livestock dealers, processors, and food and fiber distributors. Farmers have historically sought to overcome their deficiency in marketing power by organizing cooperative bargaining associations and marketing cooperatives to assemble greater volumes of graded products to meet buyers' specifications and to deal with them on more equal terms. They have also organized because marketing services were not available in their communities, or marketing opportunities and services were offered at higher costs than what co-ops could accomplish.
