The importance of cooperation -- it's one of life's most important lessons. Dating back to the early 1900s, the Farmers Cooperative Company learned that lesson early on. The 5,200-member co-op offers agronomy and grain marketing services to its members, who oversee some 3 million acres of farmland in central and north central Iowa. It operates 40 grain elevators and provides soil testing, and mapping services. It sells supplies including seed, feed, and fertilizer, to its members. Farmers Cooperative is an acquisitive operation. Since the 1960s it has acquired more than 20 other agricultural co-ops, grain elevators, fertilizer manufacturers, and other farm-related businesses.

Cooper Farms' poultry products fly far from the coop. The company raises turkeys (180 million pounds of live bird per year) on its Ohio farm and supplies pre-cooked (oven-roasted, smoked, and cured breasts and deli meats) and ready-to-cook turkey products to retail and foodservice customers in the US and Mexico. Cooper Farms also provides private-label packaging services for other food manufacturers. Additional items produced by the company include eggs (400 million a year), weaned pigs (90 million live pounds per year), poults (baby turkeys) (14 million per year), and animal feed (400,000 tons per year). Cooper makes feed for diary and beef cattle, as well as for swine.

In 1969, Founder Tim Miyasaka and a team of experienced growers began their quest to pioneer the best berry. Starting with only 150 acres and shipping just 500,000 strawberry flats their inaugural season, their combined berry growing knowledge and passion for customer service quickly made a name for themselves in the industry. Since then, not only have the farms grown and the products multiplied, but Well-Pict has become the preferred name in both the United States and abroad. Today, offering a full-line of premium quality berries, the pride and passion that began with the simple goal of growing the perfect berry is still prevalent in everything Well-Pict does.

Mercer Landmark Inc. is a locally owned farm cooperative located in West Central Ohio with 18 facilities in Mercer, Darke, Van Wert, Paulding and Defiance counties. Mercer Landmark is a landmark for farmers and other residents of rural west and central Ohio, and not just because you can see the company's grain elevators from miles away. The company stores and markets corn, soybeans, and wheat; it also offers agronomy services and sells animal feed, seed, poultry litter, diesel, gasoline, propane, and crop insurance. Mercer Landmark operates more than a dozen facilities. It also operates Mercer Soy, a processor of soybeans into high-protein meal and oil for use as animal feed. Mercer Landmark hs been in business since 1933.

PinguinLutosa is a Belgium-based company that specializes in the development, production and sale of frozen vegetables, potato products and ready-to-use culinary preparations. The Group also produces and sells fresh pre-cooked potato products. The Company's activities are divided into two operating segments: the potato division, accounting for 47.99 % of total revenue in 2009, and the frozen vegetables division, accounting for 52.01 % of total revenue. The Company has six vegetable production sites situated in agricultural areas in Europe (West- Flanders, Southern France, Norfolk and Lincolnshire, United Kingdom) and two production sites in Belgium (Leuze-en-Hainaut and St. Eloois-Vijve), with three production companies located at these sites. As of December 31, 2009, the Company had subsidiaries in Belgium, France, Germany, China, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Japan, Austria and Brasil, among others.

Kenneth Lee and Caryl Levine started Lotus Foods, Inc. in 1995. Lotus Foods is a leading importer and distributor of organic and specialty rice. Lotus Foods company purchases rice primarily from family farms overseas; its products include such varieties as Organic Jasmine, Bhutanese Red, and Cassava Sesame. Lotus Foods distributes rice to specialty gourmet and natural food stores and to restaurants. It also sells rice and rice cooking products to consumers online.

J. R. Simplot Company was founded in 1923. J. R. Simplot Company engages in food processing, fertilizer manufacturing, agriculture, and related businesses in the United States, Canada, China, Mexico, and Australia. Its products include animal feed, feed ingredients, agricultural fertilizers, turf fertilizers, herbicides and combinations, spreaders, tees, greens, seeds, and grass. J.R. Simplot company offers food products, such as avocado, fruits, potatoes, vegetables, vegetable blends, French fries, and potato products; and industrial products, which include sulfuric acids, phosphoric acids, anhydrous ammonia, nitric acid, and sulfate, as well as silica. Its services also include animal health and nutritional programs, construction, and crop support and consulting services; and cattle feeding and beef-cattle production.

Compass Group UK & Ireland is a leading contract foodservices and catering business that offers corporate dining services, concessions operations at sports stadiums, and fine dining at a number of conference venues. Compass Group also has foodservice operations at schools and healthcare facilities, as well as at military bases and remote locations such as off-shore oil rigs. It operates through such subsidiaries as Eurest, ESS Support Services, and Chartwells. Its Facilities Management Catering unit offers hospitality services at sporting events including Wimbledon. Compass Group UK is a division of Compass Group, the world's largest contract foodservices provider.

Gruma Corporation has it all wrapped up. With operations in the US and Europe, the company manufactures and distributes more than 20 varieties of corn flour, corn tortillas, and related products, such as tortilla chips. Gruma's brand name offerings include Mission and Guerrero tortillas and Maseca corn flour. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mexican food company Gruma, S.A.B. de C.V. and accounts for the majority of its parent's revenue. It produces about 1.3 million tons of corn flour and tortillas every year, and its products are available in some 30,000 US stores. In 2008, Gruma Corporation saw sales dip slightly for the first time in years.

St. Ours & Co. was founded in 1979 by president, Frederick St. Ours. St. Ours company manufactures the St. Ours brand of seafood broths, condiments, and seasonings. Its products are distributed across North America and in Europe. St. Ours company sells clam and other broth mixes as a spray dried powder, for use in recipes such as clam chowder, shrimp creole, crawfish scampi, and she-crab soup. It also wholesales frozen shellfish.

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