Un idéal coopératif à l'épreuve du capital. Le cas d'une entreprise de déshydratation de l'Ouest

Abstract

The Ideal of a Co-operative System Confronted with Capitalism. The Case of a Dehydrating Plant in Western France. Within a group of small and medium-sized farmers who already share labour and machines, the creation of a forage dehydrating plant causes more dissension than concord. The cost of dehydrating is such that farmers tend to use forage as a complementary food rather than a basic one. Thus in their rotation cycle they tend to favour lucern (alfalfa) which contains the highest percentage of proteinic substances, neglecting to supply the plant regularly with grass and hence affecting its efficiency. The plant workers, who carry out harvesting as well, react by stretching the cutting period as much as possible, which is harmful to the quality of the forage and the structure of the soils. Besides, the small-holders, once useful for the creation of the capital, turn out to be a handicap for the commercial efficiency of the plant because of their small and scattered fields. Moreover, the yields of their milch-cows are generally too low to justify the dehydrating of forage. Hence a double contradiction develops: on the one hand, between the farmers and the plant; on the other hand, between the small and medium-sized farms. This opposition brings to light the fact that the family holdings of this area are badly adapted to the heavy investments required for undertakings such as a dehydrating plant. This results in an evolution of the politics of recruitment, which tend to be based exclusively on principles of commercial efficiency at any cost, according to the logic of capital, and thus disregard the ideal of cooperation out of which the project of a dehydrating plant grew.