2021 Colorado Code
Title 7 - Corporations and Associations
Article 56 - Cooperatives
Part 1 - General Provisions
§ 7-56-102. Legislative Declaration

1. The general assembly finds and declares that:
   1. The cooperative form of doing business provides an efficient and effective method for persons to market their goods and services and to obtain services and supplies and it is in the best interests of the people of the state of Colorado to promote, foster, and encourage the utilization of cooperatives in appropriate instances;
   2. The cooperative marketing law of the state of Colorado has provided for the promotion, fostering, and encouragement of the intelligent and orderly marketing of agricultural products through cooperation; has eliminated speculation and waste; has made distribution of agricultural products between producer and consumer more efficient; has stabilized the marketing of agricultural products; and has provided for the organization and incorporation of cooperative marketing associations for the marketing of such products, all as contemplated at the time of the original adoption of the cooperative marketing law;
   3. It is in the best interests of the people of the state of Colorado to preserve the provisions of the cooperative marketing law as it has been in force and interpreted in the state and to continue the provisions thereof for agriculture, but also to expand the provisions of the law to provide greater direction and flexibility in its provisions and to enable all types of industries and enterprises to avail themselves of the benefits of the cooperative form of doing business in accordance with the provisions of this article;
   4. It is in the best interests of the people of the state of Colorado to allow those cooperatives that have been formed under or are subject to other articles of this title, such as article 55, to remain under said article or to elect to come under this article.

History. Source: L. 96: Entire article R&RE, p. 478, § 1, effective July 1. L. 2003: (1)(d) amended, p. 2219, § 66, effective July 1, 2004.

This section is similar to former § 7-56-102 as it existed prior to 1996.

Annotator's note. The following annotations include cases decided under former provisions similar to this section.

The basic conception of a cooperative marketing association is that of a group of farmers who reside in the same vicinity acting together for their mutual benefit in the cultivating, harvesting, and marketing of their agricultural products, the association itself being merely a convenient instrumentality in the hands of the farmers for carrying on such activities. Indus. Comm'n v. United Fruit Growers Ass'n, 106 Colo. 223 , 103 P.2d 15 (1940).

A cooperative marketing association is not required to pay contributions on the wages of individuals employed by it, under the provisions of title 8, since the labor involved in the activities of the association is “agricultural labor” and exempt from the operation of the federal unemployment tax act by § 8-70-103 . Indus. Comm'n v. United Fruit Growers Ass'n, 106 Colo. 223 , 103 P.2d 15 (1940).

But a different result might attain where farm crops are marketed by a commercial profit corporation or are not marketed in an unmanufactured state. Indus. Comm'n v. United Fruit Growers Ass'n, 106 Colo. 223 , 103 P.2d 15 (1940).

Legislative declaration does not provide association members with an express right to purchase goods and services from an association store. Therefore, this section does not support a breach of contract claim. Arnold v. Anton Coop. Ass'n, 293 P.3d 99 (Colo. App. 2011).