The Cabot Creamery Cooperative is an American dairy agricultural marketing cooperative, wholly owned by the Agri-Mark Cooperative.
Originally started as Cabot Farmers Cooperative Creamery in 1919 by farmers in Cabot, Vermont, it was taken over by the Agri-Mark Cooperative in 1992. Agri-Mark started a new corporation, Cabot Creamery Cooperative, in Michigan.[1]
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The original plant had an investment of $3,700 in total, which was paid by 94 farmers in proportion to the number of cattle which each owned. The cooperative started out making butter with the excess milk produced, and began shipping its products south. In 1930 they started making cheese. By 1960, the cooperative had 600 member farmers.
Following a decline in membership, the Cabot Farmers Cooperative Creamery merged in 1992 with Agri-Mark, a large New England and New York milk handler and manufacturer,[2] and was re-incorporated in Michigan as Cabot Creamery Cooperative Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Agri-mark.
In 2008, Cabot had facilities in various locations, including Cabot, Route 100 in Waterbury and a store in Quechee. The cheese-making facilities in Cabot offer tours and information, and sell souvenirs.
There are, as of 2004[update], about 1,350 members in Vermont and the nearby part of upstate New York. The cooperative still follows the Rochdale Principles.
Cabot began marketing cheese internationally in 2007.
Wine Spectator magazine selected a Cabot cloth-bound cheddar as one of its "100 great cheeses" of the world in 2008.[4] That same year the American Cheese Society selected Cabot Monterey Jack to receive one of the 33 national awards.[5] The Vermont Agency of Agriculture Food and Markets has approved Cabot aged cheddars for display of the Vermont Seal of Quality.
In 2008, there were about 400 Cabot farms in Vermont belonging to Agri-Mark.[6]
In 2009, Agri-Mark had 1,300 farmer-members.[7]
As a co-op, Agri-Mark is a membership organization incorporated in Delaware on April 21, 1980. The members of the Agri-Mark cooperative, who supply Agri-Mark's equity capital and directly elect its directors, are not stockholders of record and therefore have no right under Delaware statutory law to inspect the corporation's books and records.[8] Only the board of directors hold a share of stock and so are owners under Delaware law.
The co-op retains much of the excess profit, up to $150,000 per farmer, as equity in the form of non-interest bearing loans. For farmers departing the co-op, this equity is repaid over seven years. Dividends in excess of the retained equity are returned to the members.[7]
The Delaware stock corporation signs yearly marketing agreements with the farmers who produce milk. They can decline to re-sign any producer without reason at the end of the contract.
In 1994, when the two companies merged, they had $30 million in sales. This reached $350 million in 2008.[7]
On several occasions, Cabot has been penalized for pollution incidents by the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources. In 2000, Cabot was cited for a "minor violation of [its] indirect discharge permit and land use permit."[9] In 2007, Cabot paid a $50,000 fine with an additional $50,000 funding of a Supplemental Environmental Projects.[10] In 2007, Cabot also pled guilty to violating the Clean Water Act after an ammonia spill killed thousands of fish in the Winooski River, in July 2005. The spill destroyed all aquatic life for 5.5 miles (8.9 km).[11]
In 2011, the Vermont Attorney General's office alleged that some Cabot products made in 2009 and 2010 could not be certified as free of rBST, a hormone that helps cows produce more milk. Cabot settled with the state, agreeing not to make such representations, to pay a $65,000 fine, and to donate $75,000 worth of dairy products to local food banks.[12]
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