My first words will be to wish you a very Happy New Year 2012!  I trust you took advantage of the holidays to celebrate with friends and family and enjoy their company.
After all, isn’t that what it’s all about and aren’t they our most precious gifts, although we are very devoted to our profession we shouldn’t lose sight of the quintessential balance between work and family.

Furthermore, if we take a closer look at the past year, at least in agriculture, apart from a few exceptions, it hasn’t been as bad as what we had predicted in the spring.

And between us cooperators, as we look ahead to 2012, I hope it will give us an opportunity to acknowledge and honour the value of our cooperative tools.

In fact, the United Nations (UN) declared 2012 to be the International Year of Cooperatives. We’ve been given a great opportunity to ‘come out of the closet’ and proclaim loud and clear that cooperatives constitute a credible solution for change from capitalism’s destructive effects.

In a world where we can’t help but bear witness to capitalism’s recalcitrant ways and how they exclude an increasingly large proportion of the human population while placing a heavy burden on the planet’s ecosystems.

And in a world where one third of the population lives on less than two dollars a day, and in a world where nearly one billion men, women and children are starving and some 50,000 of them die every day, there is certainly reason to question our society’s position, as did the people who were part of ‘Occupy Wall Street’.

I often say that cooperatives never claimed to be the solution to every problem, but they at least have the ambition of being part of the solution.

As the saying goes “If you want something done right, do it yourself”. The democratic take over of our economic, social and environmental fate that cooperation offers allows us to view the future in a different light.

Deeply rooted in the market economy’s efficiency, but espousing the values and aspirations of the collectives in which they are embedded, cooperatives can and must play a bigger role in our society’s governance and development.

Over the past few years, they tried to sell us on the idea that trade liberalization and globalization were “the” solution to developing and enriching our society.

Yet, we now realize that this same globalization has in fact produced economic growth, but its benefits are reserved for the wealthy and essentially rest on the premise that company’s must move production to countries in which costs are lower and where protection of natural resources is… tolerant.

Globalization without development is just like stealing from Paul to pay Peter. We need to promote a form of globalization that is founded on more equitable relationships, that focuses on human resources and collectives, and takes into account the social and environmental costs of development.

This, of course, is my opinion, by adopting the cooperative formula we can more easily attain these objectives.

We are now almost one billion cooperators, grouped together into more than 750,000 cooperatives that are active in a wide-range of industries and activities, and generate some 100 million jobs.  

The UN has assessed that the means of subsistence for almost half of the world’s population is ensured by cooperatives. Cooperatives are involved in a remarkable social endeavour, but they also constitute a high performance economic model.

Total turnover for the more than 300 largest cooperatives in the world (which includes La Coop network) is equivalent to the GDP of the world’s 10th biggest economy - Canada.

Cooperatives have moved forward in silos for too long, each within its own sector of activity, its own region, and often in competition with each other.

We need to find the means to become much more proactive and break down the barriers between cooperatives, within our own structures, and between our sectors of activity to fulfill the development potential of cooperatives around the world. 

Furthermore, I’ve observed that within the agricultural cooperation network, as we review our structures and our ways of doing, such actions engender more than a greater focus on cooperation between cooperative players, but also a notable improvement in the creation of wealth that benefits all of our members.

And to create a better and just society, we’ll have to take on the challenge of cooperation’s economic efficiency.

If we really want to serve as a replacement model in a world dominated by the capitalist paradigm, we owe it to ourselves to be at the forefront of efficiency and give ourselves the means to turn our ambitions into reality.

Cooperatives certainly possess a social vocation and a raison d’être that is large and more complex that the one-dimensional pursuit of profit at all cost. However, they must not set aside the fact that they are full economic players who must play an active part in expanding the society in which they are evolving.

As president of the Conseil québécois de la coopération et de la mutualité I’ve known cooperative leaders who were uncomfortable with the notion of reviewing their structure and their work methods, even if such action was to create wealth and improve member benefits.

And yet it is through the growth of cooperative activities and continued improvement of tangible benefits for their members that cooperatives will be able to take an active part in the rise of a better and just society.

Fewer structures and more cooperation between cooperative players are, in my opinion, the main challenges confronting the cooperative world to ensure that it fully embraces its role as a counterbalance to the pervading capitalist paradigm.

Agriculture has been the core of the world cooperative project since its very inception, and agricultural cooperatives are still very active throughout the continents. 

There’s a reason farmers have always chosen to go with the cooperative formula. Born of the need to find quality tools and services in rural areas, agricultural cooperatives are still very active today, because they constitute an economic development model that meets their values as people from the land.

There are events and communications planned throughout the year to raise the awareness of political decision-makers and the general public to cooperation as a plausible replacement solution for several industries.

These activities will come to a close with the International Cooperatives Summit, organized by the Mouvement Desjardins, and to which the world’s largest cooperatives have been invited to reflect upon our collective future. 

In 2012, I encourage you to show your cooperative allegiance proudly and show your support for the global cooperative movement; the time has come for the world to measure the significance and importance of the cooperative presence in our daily lives.

If you haven’t already, I encourage you to take an active part in your cooperative’s democratic life. It is still the best way to make sure cooperatives fully explore their development and service potential. Furthermore, you’ll be contributing to the rise of a better and just world.

Once again, wishing you a very Happy New Year!

And a Happy International Year of Cooperatives!