Thirty years ago Helmberger speculated that in- dustrialization of agriculture would lead to the de- mise of farmer cooperatives (Helmberger 1966, p. 1434). In responding to Helmberger's prediction, Abrahamsen countered by suggesting that as in- dustrialization of agriculture evolved, coopera- tives would increasingly become the "farmer's integrating agency" (Abrahamsen, p. 1442). In this paper I examine these two divergent opinions by (a) briefly describing the structural and strategic evolution of U.S. farmer coopera- tives since the Helmberger and Abrahamsen (H&A) forecasts, (b) utilizing recent develop- ments in neo-institutional economic (organiza- tional economic) theory to generate hypotheses regarding structural and strategic shifts in U.S. agricultural cooperatives, and (c) further apply- ing neo-institutional economics to speculate what the future might hold for U.S. producer- owned and -controlled agricultural cooperatives.

    The Future of U.S. Agricultural Cooperatives: A Neo-Institutional Approach