Everything Co-op with Vernon Oakes
Sep 8, 2026 · 50 min · 15 segments
August 27, 2026 This episode launches Everything Co-op's tribute to the 2026 Cooperative Hall of Fame Inductees with a special conversation featuring Margaret Bau, a legendary figure in rural economic…
Vernon OakesHost
But when you joined USDA, they were forming, merging two programs into what became USDA Rural Development.
What was USDA's understanding of cooperatives when you arrived, and how did your understanding differ from what they understood?
And in 1926, Congress mandated that the U.S. Department of Agriculture would assist farmers with their cooperatives with education, research, statistics, and co-op development.
And so when I first started with USDA, I tried to engage with, you know, people that were doing eggs raising and different things like that.
But then I got this phone call from over in Washera County about this of the head of human services saying, she had come across a three-page case study about cooperative home care associates in the South Bronx of New York City.
And she wondered, huh, I wonder if something like that could happen here in a rural community.
And I was newly hired, and she reached out to the local community action agency called CAP Services.
And she's like, can you help me with forming a worker co-op? And they're like, huh.
I wasn't making much traction with some of the farmer groups that I was trying to work with because...
And so I started working on this worker co-op project, and it just kind of snowballed.
And so I became known within USDA by a few people that if they got a stray call, they're like, oh, talk to Margaret Bao.
And that's like saying Margaret works with non-credit union co-ops or she works with non-rural electric co-ops.
But when you joined USDA, they were forming, merging two programs into what became USDA Rural Development.
What was USDA's understanding of cooperatives when you arrived, and how did your understanding differ from what they understood?
And in 1926, Congress mandated that the U.S. Department of Agriculture would assist farmers with their cooperatives with education, research, statistics, and co-op development.
And so when I first started with USDA, I tried to engage with, you know, people that were doing eggs raising and different things like that.
But then I got this phone call from over in Washera County about this of the head of human services saying, she had come across a three-page case study about cooperative home care associates in the South Bronx of New York City.
And she wondered, huh, I wonder if something like that could happen here in a rural community.
And I was newly hired, and she reached out to the local community action agency called CAP Services.
And she's like, can you help me with forming a worker co-op? And they're like, huh.
I wasn't making much traction with some of the farmer groups that I was trying to work with because...
And so I started working on this worker co-op project, and it just kind of snowballed.
And so I became known within USDA by a few people that if they got a stray call, they're like, oh, talk to Margaret Bao.
And that's like saying Margaret works with non-credit union co-ops or she works with non-rural electric co-ops.
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