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Fighting Poverty by Cooperating n the Tyrol, the Cooperative movement inserted itself not only in the area of credit for the farmers; it addressed itself to various aspects or needs of the world of the farmer. In 1890, there began in Villa of Santa Croce in the Bleggio a Consumer Cooperative. Begun by the Founder of the Cooperative Movement, Don Lorenzo Guetti. He called a Famiglia Cooperativa, a Family Cooperative. His term of “family” was used to capture the very spirit of solidarity present in a real family addressing the needs of agriculture and the farmers’ families. He thought that such a notion of a family dynamic of mutual reliance would have a greater power in the acquisition of goods and services than that of private entrepreneurs. There were two objectives. One was to enable the impoverished farmers to acquire agricultural necessities at a far lower price then they had to pay previously. The other was to provide time for the farmers to repay their purchases at a time when they had realized the harvests of their fields.
The beneficiaries of the Cooperative were the “soci”, the associates or those participating in the Cooperative and who had underwritten the social quota needed to creative the Cooperative. Such associates were enabled to buy not on the personal credit which they did not have but of that of the Cooperative. The purchases were recorded on a designated booklet and the farmers did not pay immediately but only when they were able. In truth, the reality was that the Cooperative was too indulgent. They would have to often remind the associates to pay their debts reminding them of their obligations. The Cooperatives were placed in jeopardy their balance sheets as they struggled to recoup their loans extended to the famers. These circumstances plagued the Cooperatives throughout the Tyrol but they could not do other than tolerate the delays. The very system with its accounting booklets was designed as a means of helping the poor farmers incapable to sustain them and deprived of any personal credit or assets.
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Early Family Cooperative
The Family Cooperative sought to extend themselves selling their goods at the very costs and eventually deriving a slight profit to assist actual Cooperative store or outlet to sustain their expenses, avoiding cheating on the price of goods that were exchanged. Eventually, this mode of consumer cooperative played an extremely important role and function not only for the associates but also for the consumers in general who benefitted by this mechanism. Thanks to the Cooperative mechanism, the exchange of good experienced a resulting price control. Even the private vendors had to lower their prices to remain competitive and not be excluded from the commerce. This model questioned the position and privileges of the commercial enterprises that coalesced against the cooperative movement to place the cooperatives in difficult but without succeeding. The Consumer Cooperative served as a catalyst in a grand design to oblige the farmer to improve his agricultural practices by abandoning the poly-farming and embracing a production geared to the needs of the agricultural marketing. The initiative was to upset the equilibrium of the old order to enliven to a very needy area which had nurtured and prompted emigration Written by Alberto Ianes, Museo Storico, Trento