During this harvest season, I have been reflecting on the value cooperatives bring to rural America and agriculture.

As we celebrate National Co-op Month in October and near completion of 2025, the Year of the Cooperative as designated by the United Nations, we join communities around the world who benefit from stability and resilience enabled by working with cooperatives.

Cooperatives were built on the principle of doing more together than one person can do alone.

This collective strength has powered agriculture for generations and has long been an economic and stewardship engine for rural America.

In fact, Oklahoma has 41 ag co-ops and Texas has 134, the second highest number of ag cooperatives in the U.S.

As the nation’s largest farmer-owned cooperative, CHS has for generations brought value through patronage back to our owners and their communities.

In the past decade, CHS has returned nearly $2.6 billion to our owners. Those dollars are then reinvested by CHS owners to strengthen rural communities.

A fixture in rural America for nearly a century, CHS is also investing for the future – in facilities that will serve farm and ranch families for decades to come and bring quality jobs and economic viability to communities to keep them strong.

A co-op brings that longterm thinking because it is created for farmers, by farmers.

Because they are part of the CHS cooperative system, the farmers in this region are connected to a world of opportunities with a company focused on creating value for its owners.

That’s the cooperative difference.

Today, U.S. farmers and ranchers face many challenges with shifts in global demand for the commodities we produce, volatile weather, changing policy and more.

As we look to the future, being cooperative owners will continue to help them navigate those challenges together.

I am grateful for the vital role cooperatives have played in this area and in communities across rural America and across the globe.

Cooperatives truly help build a better world.