National Council of Farmer Cooperatives
Representing the Business Interests of Agriculture

Washington, DC – The National Council of Farmer Cooperatives (NCFC) today announced that Tennessee Farmers Cooperative, a LaVergne, Tenn.-based farmer cooperative, has won the Best in Cooperative Communications Award in NCFC’s 2005 Cooperative Information Fair. The award is presented annually to the entry that judges consider the best overall in the annual communications competition.

Tennessee Farmers won with their feature article entitled “The Long Row Home”, which appeared in the February 2005 issue of their Tennessee Cooperator member newspaper. It is a heartwarming profile of James Bouldin, a lifelong farmer from Morrison, TN, who purchased back his family’s first tractor, a 1945 Farmall “H”, from the farmer who had owned it for nearly 50 years. As friends and neighbors help Bouldin restore the tractor, the article relates the story not only of Bouldin and his family, but also looks at how farming has changed in Tennessee since the end of World War II.

In her comments on this entry, the judge said, “This is a suberb feature story….It is beautifully written, and overflows with human interest and history. Excellent job.”

Over 20 farmer-owned cooperative businesses participated in this year’s competition. The winning entries were displayed at the 2006 NCFC Annual Meeting, held January 19-21 at the Buena Vista Palace in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

Judging of the more than 250 entries was coordinated by Val Lauder, a professor with the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The 13 Info Fair judges were drawn from faculty at the college.

The Cooperative Information Fair has been conducted annually since 1946 to evaluate communications and marketing products of America’s farmer cooperatives.

More information on Tennessee Farmers Cooperative, including more recent articles from their membership newspaper, can be found on their web site at http://www.ourcoop.com.