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Abstract
North Dakota and Minnesota are currently witnessing a renewal in the growth of cooperative
enterprises. At the heart of this renewal lies the so-called New Generation Cooperative
(NGC), a term that has been applied to the dozens of value-added processing, selected membership
cooperatives that have recently formed in the region's agricultural sector. A key organizational
feature of NGCs is the linking of producer capital contributions and product delivery
rights. This paper describes the organizational features of NGCs and positions them in the
broader context of cooperative incentive structures, governance structures, and the cooperative
development process. More generally, the paper uses NGCs as a lens through which important
elements of cooperative theory can be reviewed.