Consumer Reports. Consumer-Farmer Milk Cooperative records, 1904-1988 and undated

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Summary

Creator:
Consumer Reports (Firm)
Abstract:
Consumer Reports is a product testing and consumer advocacy nonprofit organization based in Yonkers, N.Y., founded in 1936. The Consumer-Farmer Milk Cooperative was a dairy cooperative serving the New York City area, established in 1937 and operated until 1971. The Consumer-Farmer Milk Cooperative records include clippings, correspondence, facility documents, financial and tax reports, meeting minutes, newsletters, pamphlets and flyers, photographs, sales and distribution records and other printed materials that document the operation of the cooperative and its relations with government agencies, labor unions, supplier dairies and creameries and other associated organizations. Topics discussed in the records include community health, consumer education and protection, government regulation, housing settlements, milk grading and pricing, and milk depots for supply and distribution. Organizations represented include Associated Dairies (now ASDA), Belle Mead Creamery, Cooperative League (now the Twentieth Century Fund), Dairy Farmers Union, Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union (later the National Farmers Union), Milk Consumers Protective Committee, Rutland Railroad, Sunnyside Consumers Cooperative, the Teamsters Union, and the United States Department of Agriculture. Acquired as part of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History.
Extent:
19.0 Linear Feet
Language:
Materials in English, German, Hebrew, Spanish, Swedish
Collection ID:
RL.11793

Background

Scope and content:

The Consumer-Farmer Milk Cooperative records include clippings, correspondence, facility documents, financial and tax reports, meeting minutes, newsletters, pamphlets and flyers, photographs, sales and distribution records and other printed materials that document the operation of the cooperative and its relations with government agencies, labor unions, supplier dairies and creameries and other associated organizations. Topics discussed in the records include community health, consumer education and protection, government regulation, housing settlements, milk grading and pricing, and milk depots for supply and distribution. Organizations represented include Associated Dairies (now ASDA), Belle Mead Creamery, Cooperative League (now the Twentieth Century Fund), Dairy Farmers Union, Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union (later the National Farmers Union), Milk Consumers Protective Committee, Rutland Railroad, Sunnyside Consumers Cooperative, the Teamsters Union, and the United States Department of Agriculture.

Biographical / historical:

Consumer Reports is a product testing and consumer advocacy nonprofit organization based in Yonkers, N.Y., founded in 1936. The Consumer-Farmer Milk Cooperative was a dairy cooperative serving the New York City area established in 1937 and operated until 1971.

In 1936 residents and members of consumer and civic groups formed the Milk Consumers Protective Committee to represent the interests of milk consumers. Members of this group met with members of the New York Dairy Farmers Union in November 1937 and established the Consumer-Farmer Milk Cooperative the following month.

Milk delivered by the farmer members was processed by the Cooperative in its own plant and was distributed through cooperative-run milk stations. Stations were set up in settlement houses, housing project recreation rooms and church basements. Milk from these stations sold consistently 2-3 cents below milk prices sold by larger milk companies. Selling milk at the lower price was based on cooperative principle of selling at the lowest prevailing retail rate and then dividing the profits amomg Cooperative members.

In June 1971 the Consumer-Farmer Milk Cooperative terminated its activities as processor, marketer and distributor of milk and milk products. The Cooperative ended its 33 years of service due to a change in social and economic conditions.

The Consumer-Farmer Milk Cooperative was led by Meyer Parodneck. Parodneck was born in Poland in 1905 and emigrated to the United States. He graduated from New York Law School in 1925 and ran a number of small businesses. Parodneck developed an interest in the cooperative movement in Europe and in consumer issues in the United States, especially with regard to milk prices in lower income housing developments. He was instrumental in the founding of the Consumer-Farmer Milk Cooperative in 1937, and served as its president. The Cooperative sold off its assets in 1968 and donated the proceeds to the Consumer-Farmer Foundation which focused more narrowly on housing issues. The Foundation changed its name to the Parodneck Foundation for Self-Help Housing and Community Development in 1994 upon the death of Parodneck in that year.

Source: Consumers Union Archive collection notes; Parodneck Foundation website.

Acquisition information:
The Consumer Reports. Consumer-Farmer Milk Cooperative records were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a gift in 2019.
Processing information:

Processed by Richard Collier, Mar. 2020; Accessions described in this collection guide: 2019-0130

Arrangement:

Organized into the following series: Administrative Files; General Files; Meyer Parodneck Papers; Milk Cooperative Files; Organizations; Printed Materials.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

Using These Materials

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Using These Materials

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Consumer Reports. Consumer-Farmer Milk Cooperative records, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.