Why Farmers Should Sell with a Cooperative
Your sales platform holds your customers, your data, and a share of every sale. Why farmers are choosing a farmer-owned cooperative over venture-backed tech.
Updated October 2026
The short answer: Your sales platform holds your customer list, your sales data, and a share of every dollar you earn. When an investor-owned company runs it, those decisions answer to investors who need a return, usually through rising prices or a sale of the company. When a farmer-owned cooperative runs it, farmers elect the board, set the direction, and share in the profits. That's why we built GrownBy as a cooperative.
We're not just built for farmers, we're owned by farmers.
Who owns your farm's software matters
Most farm sales platforms are owned by investors, founders, or public shareholders, not by the farmers who use them. That's not a moral failing. It's a business model, and it shapes every decision the company makes:
Investors need a return. Venture capital is designed to be paid back many times over, usually through a sale of the company or rising revenue per customer.
Companies get sold or shut down. Farm software has seen this again and again. Farmigo was acquired by GrubMarket in 2021, and Harvie, a popular CSA platform, shut down at the end of 2024, sending its farms looking for new software.
Your data is an asset on someone else's balance sheet. Customer lists and sales data are valuable to buyers of a company. Farmers rarely have a say in what happens to them.
Prices follow the investors' timeline. Fees and plans can change when the company needs to hit growth targets.
For the specifics, from Farmigo and Harvie to Toast, Etsy, and a billion dollars of vertical farming, read what venture-backed technology has meant for farmers and small businesses.
How a farmer-owned cooperative is different
A cooperative is a business owned and democratically controlled by the people who use it. Farmers have used cooperatives for more than a century to buy supplies, market crops, and get fair prices, from dairy co-ops to grain elevators to rural electric co-ops. GrownBy applies the same idea to software.
Feature | Farmer-owned cooperative (GrownBy) | Investor-owned platform |
|---|---|---|
Who owns it | Farmer-sellers (90%) and employees (10%) | Investors, founders, or public shareholders |
Who controls the board | Farmer-members, elected by farmer-members | Investors |
Where profits go | Back to member-owners as dividends, once profitable | To investors |
Who decides the company's future | A farmer-controlled board, accountable to members | Investors and the board they control |
Who the product is built for | The farmers who own it | Growth that satisfies investors |
What your fees build | Equity in a company you own | Someone else's company |
What farmer ownership means on GrownBy
Real ownership. Farm Generations Cooperative, which runs GrownBy, is a multi-stakeholder cooperative. Farmer-sellers own 90% and employees own 10%.
A farmer-controlled board. The board is, and always will be, majority controlled by farmer-members democratically elected by other farmer-members. Members can run for the board.
Financial equity. Members build equity based on how much they use GrownBy. When the co-op is profitable, members receive annual cash dividends.
Lower prices. Co-op members save 10% on every paid plan.
A voice in the roadmap. Members are included in the annual member meeting, and farmer feedback shapes what we build. Features like SNAP Online, custom CSA boxes, sell-by-weight tools, and GrownBy Register were built around what farmers asked for.
Easy to join. Any farm selling on GrownBy can become a member-owner by agreeing to the member agreement and purchasing a $250 share. One membership per farm.
The cooperative advantage shows up in the product
Because GrownBy answers to farmers, it's built around what farms actually need, not what makes a pitch deck look good:
A $0 plan and no setup fees, so new and small farms can start selling.
Fees customers can cover, so farms keep more of each sale. In 2024, 60% of GrownBy customers chose to cover all fees.
Free SNAP Online, because getting local food to every family matters. GrownBy was the first farm platform approved by the USDA for SNAP Online.
Support from people who farm. Our team includes CSA growers, shepherds, cheesemakers, and flower farmers.
Frequently asked questions
Is GrownBy really a cooperative?
Yes. GrownBy is run by Farm Generations Cooperative, a multi-stakeholder cooperative in which farmer-sellers own 90% and employees own 10%.
Do I have to join the cooperative to use GrownBy?
No. Membership is optional. Any farm can sell on GrownBy, and you can join any time from the Plan and Membership page in your account settings.
How much does it cost to become a member-owner?
A one-time $250 share. Members save 10% on every paid plan, vote in board elections, and build equity in the cooperative.
Are there other farmer-owned sales platforms?
GrownBy is the first platform cooperative in agriculture: a software platform owned by and operated for the farmers who use it.
What happens to my data on a cooperative platform?
Your farm's data supports your business, and decisions about it are made by a board controlled by farmers like you.
Book a demo to see GrownBy and learn about co-op membership.