(bright music) >>It's more than a job now because they're part owners.

>>How do we make all the employees share in the success of the company?

>>Hey, construction ahead of schedule, I mean, right Wayne?

(chuckles) >>The legacies of agricultural cooperatives and of electric cooperatives here in Virginia.

It's an old way of organizing a business, is to have the people who do the work actually make the decisions about how it's run and to actually gain from the fruits of their labor.

They are practicing democracy on a day-to-day basis, and that is as American as you can get as far as I'm concerned.

(Leslie speaking in Spanish) (Dilcia speaking in Spanish) >>We belong to Hardee County Rural Telephone.

That's a co-op.

Southern states, it's a co-op.

>>Co-op has its own set of laws.

You know, you're operating within a framework that's pretty unique.

(Leslie speaking in Spanish) (Dilcia speaking in Spanish) >>I feel like my generation specifically is enthralled by this idea of community or really wants it back.

No one wants to struggle alone anymore.

>>A co-op provides more financial success, I think for a farmer in the end.

You know, they have more on the line, but at the end of the day they are able to make more as well.

(Organizer speaking in Spanish) ♪ In the Heartland we rely on ourselves ♪ ♪ And one another ♪ ♪ Hand in hand ♪ ♪ We must stand in the Heartland ♪ >>Production funding for 'Life in the Heart Land' was provided by The Chrisman Family Foundation and by: (lively music) >>Charles City was a very interesting place to live and to grow up.

I didn't realize at the time how interesting it was.

Some of the studies showed that the highest ownership of black farmers was in Charles City County.

As free blacks at the time, it was very difficult to get things done, but they managed to organize themselves.

It shows how important it is to work together, how much you can achieve as a group.

The Ruthville community is family.

I think in rural areas oftentimes there's a little more sense of this.

This was the one school was right back here and then the church over there.

This is a picture of the old church.

Elam Baptist Church was a center of education, a center of politics, center of religion, of course, first and foremost, but not exclusively, and a Center for Economic Advancement.

When they came to things like the American Title Group and the Farmers' Group, they determine what people would do.

The Black store was there for a while, but not very long in my memory.

>>The history is deep, right?

Like mutual aid is something that is as old as black people's existence in America.

I think that's why it's so important to look at the past, to sort of chart where the present is going.

(bright music) >>People who are doing the work oftentimes have the best information about how to provide a good service about what their working conditions are like.

(clock ticking) (bright music) In the last 25 years, we've moved from a society in which the majority of people were middle class to a society in which the majority of people are not middle class anymore.

The vast majority of people in this country are living month to month at best.

(bright music) We can talk about the change in the ratio, but I don't think that that actually helps us to get to solving the problem.

(Dilcia speaking in Spanish) >>So a worker-owned business is just that.

It's a business that's owned by the people who work there.

A cooperative is any kind of organization that is owned and operated by the people who do the work.

(Dilcia speaking in Spanish) (Consuelo speaking in Spanish) (Jean speaking in Spanish) (Leslie speaking in Spanish) (bright music) >>Virginia Poultry Growers Co-op started low over 20 years ago.

Many Turkey companies have struggled over the years, but the poultry co-op has just been so blessed that most all years they turn a profit.

And of course for us as a members of a co-op, when the co-op is profitable then the profits are allocated back to the members.

We built the two Turkey houses in 1986.

(bright music) It's about 8,300 birds around us.

These birds are 15 weeks old now.

They arrive on the farm at five weeks of age and we raise them for 15 weeks.

Poultry Co-op provides the birds, provides the feed, provides the service tech.

If we do need any details with disease or like that, you have field persons and service persons come in once a week.

(bright music) >>I think what makes this co-op beautiful is, it was kind of formed out of a need because farmers didn't, there were another company shut down and they were left with nowhere to go.

And so they came together with differing ideas and built something that's lasted for 20 years.

My husband grew up on a Turkey farm, but I did not.

Let's change this around here.

The integrator is the company you're growing for.

An integrator is one that's not grower owned.

>>So there was another integrator here, had all these farms going and they decided they wanted to pursue the chicken side of the business and they were no longer interested in growing turkeys.

>>We were told when our birds were harvested, they would not be renewing our contract.

They said, we're gonna shut it all down.

>>It made sense for them.

The problem was is here, you know, it was a $200 million economic impact.

>>So it was just a real panic.

It was just a real crisis here in the valley among these hundred plus families.

>>I remember very vividly, the gentleman that sat beside me in one of those meetings and he said, well, it's been a good run.

>>It was just sort of a miracle how it all came together that the Virginia Poultry Growers was able to form a co-op.

The farm credit said they would provide a line of credit.

>>The business model was basically the same thing that the integrators had, but the ownership was different.

The growers were to be the owners.

>>When we say a leap of faith, it was the only choice.

>>So you can see plant was pretty much built around a barn and then this was after we bought the facility.

So you've got all these farms out there.

We got Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia.

Each one of those people are independent.

They own the birds.

They agree to follow our program and supply those birds to us.

(bright music) >>We bought this farm in 2017 and you know, I had a tire and auto repair retail business for 20 years and I actually told my siblings that I would never live on a Turkey farm or raise a Turkey.

You know, as you grow older I guess you get wiser.

And I decided that, you know, farming isn't quite as bad as what I thought it was as a youngster (rumbling).

Well, with farming, you can do it as a family effort, and I think that's very beneficial to today's society.

There's a lot of families that don't have that option.

>>If the other farm does well, you do well as well because you're looking out for the whole picture, not just yourself.

And so you want everyone else to do well.

>>Traditional models, it's maximized profitability all the time.

One of our philosophies is we know we're gonna leave money on the table.

We're not gonna be the highest price, we're not gonna be the cheapest price, but we're gonna be fair priced.

Longevity, having those birds on the farm, much more important to us.

When you put a collaborative situation together, you're gonna end up with a lot of different focuses, different opinions and things like that.

So it takes a lot of work and I think I underestimated that in the beginning.

(bright music) >>Like any family, right, families are gonna have disagreements or have different perspectives and it's not easy.

>>Why don't you do this?

I mean, I have their contract and once they get the elevator... Construction's difficult, there's issues, they're headaches, you don't have materials.

Some companies, you know, you might be swayed to go here or there, but when you feel like you're part of this company and you know, you're part of this ESOP and you see these certificates and you see the valuation go up, it's really, it's really something else.

>>I had never heard of an ESOP.

It's an employee stock ownership plan.

It's just a way for owners who wanna retire to actually transfer their ownership to the employees and everybody wins because the owner gets a fair price and then the employees, they have stock that's allocated to them over years.

You know, just to go to a job and do a task, it's so boring.

But when you actually have input and focus and you can do something that makes a difference.

>>Of course we live on a farm and I've always driven a farm truck or four wheelers driven like they stole- >>Or she's actually got her license for another like three weeks.

>>Every day, they kind of plan out including an ESOP committee meeting.

Isn't that interesting?

1971, it started as HARMAN farm supplies.

Carl and his brother Orden and then the early to mid eighties they transitioned into more commercial construction.

It was important to Carl to transition this company.

Well he was very fond of the team that he helped build.

We talked about me buying the company or a small group of employees, but at the end, the idea of an ESOP started to get more interest.

In 2019, we bought the company.

>>That's our employee owned sticker.

And then of course we have, this is the Carl HARMAN award sticker.

This is- >>It's a well worn sticker.

>>Yeah, that one's got a few years on it.

>>I came in this project probably about full time, about February.

What you see here is done by the finishers.

Everybody has the task to do, but once they do it, you see the bigger picture and you have beautiful buildings that come about.

>>All employees are participating in whatever wealth is created.

The stress that's in this industry, it's kind of motivating to know that we're all in this together and how can we get up in the morning and mutually work for the benefit of all of us.

>>It can be difficult to motivate someone to get going at seven in the morning and when you're tying steel and it's 10 degrees, right?

Or you go back after lunch and you gotta get back on the roof and it's 110, right?

And the benefits of being an ESOP, you want to spread that wealth around, you know, everybody benefits from that.

>>Well it's as stable as what our stock price will be.

It can go up, it can go down.

It's a lot of paperwork.

Volumes of all of the documents for the ESOP plan, I mean it's a bonafide retirement plan and then you have all these legal documents.

So it's very costly, but it's worth it if you can do it.

>>This co-op, if you looked at the resources we had to raise wasn't a small amount.

>>New co-ops, just like any other kind of enterprise, they need labor, they need capital, they need expertise.

>>I think the statistic is 75% of all co-ops that exist today may not exist in 10 years.

Now there'll be new ones that come along and things like that, but you know, those are pretty scary odds if you're starting out.

(Leslie speaking in Spanish) (Dilcia speaking in Spanish) (guests chattering) (Leslie speaking in Spanish) (members chattering) (Dilcia speaking in Spanish) (members chattering) (Elizabeth speaking in Spanish) (Dilcia speaking in Spanish) (Jean speaking in Spanish) (Elizabeth speaking in Spanish) (Member speaking in Spanish) (Dilcia speaking in Spanish) (bright music) (Dilcia speaking in Spanish) >>Thank you.

Thank you for the suggestions.

It's good.

(guests chattering in Spanish) >>Good evening!

This is an interpretation equipment.

>>Oh, thank you.

>>I will speak, I will talk in Spanish and they translate, you can hear in English.

>>Perfect.

(Dilcia speaking in Spanish) >>Common Shares.

Yeah.

This is the project we're starting.

Our hope is to develop a thriving cooperative economy in Virginia for all kinds of cooperation and for all kinds of economic democracy.

Businesses that want to operate on this idea that decisions about people's livelihoods, decisions about how people work should and can be made on a democratic basis.

>>It's not just about the singular cooperative, although those are important, it's about actually creating a new economy for Virginia.

So it's not just about making a quick dollar and it's about the people that make this economy up.

It's our relationship to the land.

(Leslie speaking in Spanish) (bright music) >>Do you wanna ride with him, Sarah, Joe?

Okay.

On farm life there are stresses, there are busier times than others.

It's not a glamorous lifestyle, but it's a lifestyle focused on your family and being home together and being a team together.

A smaller team within a big co-op team.

Sarah, Joe, why don't you run up there and check that water.

>>We started out with roughly 130 growers and we're up to nearly 200.

But within that segment we've had a large number of growers that are retired, roughly 50%.

You know, some of these growers weren't in that situation that if not the majority, that, Hey, if we don't do this, we're not gonna have a place to grow Turkeys.

The co-op's a good example of that collective spirit, you know, where, hey, we all have, we have goal.

(bright music) >>This is where actually that main altar is.

This is what supports it.

That's the concrete underneath it.

Yep.

Cool.

So yeah, I mean that's a tremendous amount of weight.

So with these like compromise, it was like.

(chuckles) (bright music) >>I believe that you do what you are created to called to do.

I think I know what should hold society together, but I'm not sure that it does, right?

The understanding that we all have family that we care for to try to get to the place where you understand that we all want the best for our kids, our friends.

Globally, we're not holding things together very well and maybe even internally, right?

But if we're gonna have a shot, I think that's it.

(bright music) >>Legacies that have been built continue on and they continue to impact society and our community and even our world.

(indistinct jabber) >>Homemade Pepper jelly.

(indistinct jabber) >>It's good to be here with all of you.

It's good to see HARMAN Construction doing so well.

Nothing makes me happier.

>>I think we're so used to seeing each other as products or what we can produce and we miss the large human part.

So I think if we take a human-centered approach, we'd be a lot further.

(Dilcia speaking in Spanish) >>When people participate in insisting that they have a say on the direction in which their local communities are gonna go and that is what makes a difference in terms of strengthening the bonds between people.

We want large numbers of people to participate in saying, what are we gonna do together?

(Jean speaking in Spanish) (bright music) >>Production funding for 'Life in the Heart Land' was provided by The Chrisman Family Foundation and by: ♪ Babbling brook reminds us flowing holy ♪ ♪ Plow the earth and plant and weed ♪ ♪ Watch your children grow ♪ ♪ Daybreak into nightfall ♪ ♪ Soon we're reaping all we've sown ♪ ♪ And who belongs ♪ ♪ Is it you or is it me and is there room ♪ ♪ For us in the heart of the land ♪ (light jingle)