Land O'Lakes
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Land O'Lakes, Inc. is an American member-owned
agricultural cooperative An agricultural cooperative, also known as a farmers' co-op, is a producer cooperative in which farmers pool their resources in certain areas of activities. A broad typology of agricultural cooperatives distinguishes between agricultural servic ...
based in the Minneapolis-St. Paul suburb of Arden Hills, Minnesota, United States, focusing on the dairy industry. The
cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...
has 1,959 direct producer-members, 751 member-cooperatives, and about 9,000 employees who process and distribute products for about 300,000 agricultural producers, handling 12 billion pounds of milk annually. It is ranked third on the
National Cooperative Bank The National Cooperative Bank is a Congressional charter, congressionally chartered cooperative bank in the United States created by the National Consumer Cooperative Bank Act of 1978 (Pub.L. 95-351). National Cooperative offers banking products a ...
Co-op 100 list of mutuals and cooperatives. The co-op is one of the largest producers of butter and cheese in the United States through its dairy foods business; serves producers, animal owners and their families through more than 4,700 local cooperatives, independent dealers and other large retailers through its Purina Animal Nutrition ( Purina Mills) business; and delivers seed, crop protection products, agricultural services and agronomic insights to 1,300 locally owned and operated cooperative and independent agricultural retailers and their grower customers through its WinField United business.


History

Land O'Lakes was founded on July 8, 1921, in
Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (often abbreviated St. Paul) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, ...
, by representatives from 320 cooperative creameries as the Minnesota Cooperative Creameries Association. This organization aimed to improve the marketing practices and quality of butter, and thus increase the profitability of dairying. The Association developed and implemented a systematic inspection, grading and certification system of butter from member creameries, resulting in greater uniformity of product. The improved quality and uniformity, and the reliability of its grading system, were touted in advertising materials. In 1924, the uniformly graded sweet cream butter was given the name "Land O'Lakes" after a contest, and the certificate forms used by the Association included the "Land O Lakes" marketing name (
Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...
's state nickname is "Land of 10,000 Lakes"). The name became popular enough that the organization's public identity was often confused with its product name; thus, in 1926, the organization itself adopted the name "Land O'Lakes Creameries, Inc." and became eponymous with its product. The co-op was often accused of unfair competition and false advertising in its early years, and compelled to defend its inspection and certification processes. Eventually, however, the sweet butter marketing strategy drove competitors either to match the quality of butter produced under the Land O'Lakes name or see their sales decline. Many competitors in the dairy products business copied the Land O'Lakes approach, and the certification of quality became a proven marketing technique in other product lines as well. In the 1960s and 1970s, Land O'Lakes and Lake to Lake (which later merged into Land O'Lakes) had a rivalry with the National Farmers Organization over the practice of withholding milk from market. One member was expelled from Lake to Lake for recruiting other farmers into NFO.


Recent history

The Land O'Lakes co-op has grown through numerous acquisitions, and now has a large business in farm supply in addition to dairy: In 1978, Land O'Lakes got into the meatpacking business with the purchase of Spencer Beef. It sold Spencer Beef in 1983 to Excel, now Cargill Meat Solutions. In 1999, Land O'Lakes took an ownership stake in egg producer MoArk; it took full ownership of the company in 2006. In 2001, it paid $360 million – and assumed $130 million in debt – to take over animal feed producer Purina Mills, once part of Ralston Purina. Purina Mills' new owner planned to merge the company with its Land O'Lakes Farmland Feed division but would keep the Purina name and logo. A federal court in 2002 ordered Land O'Lakes to pay $3 million for
patent infringement A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...
to Dr William Pordy, the inventor of a type of dairy creamer. An appeal court later overturned that ruling. In August 2012, Land O'Lakes purchased refrigerated desserts manufacturer Kozy Shack Enterprises for an undisclosed sum. In June 2016, Land O'Lakes acquired the
Thousand Oaks, California Thousand Oaks is the second-largest city in Ventura County, California, located in the northwestern part of Greater Los Angeles. Approximately from the city of Los Angeles and from Downtown Los Angeles, it is named after the many oak trees pr ...
-based
biofuel Biofuel is a fuel that is produced over a short time span from Biomass (energy), biomass, rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels such as oil. Biofuel can be produced from plants or from agricu ...
s firm Ceres, Inc. In July 2018, Land O'Lakes named Beth Ford as its first female CEO. Ford's role became effective August 1. At the time, she was the third openly gay woman CEO to run a Fortune 500 company. In December 2019, Land O'Lakes used autonomous truck technology developed by Plus.ai to successfully complete the first cross-country, commercial freight run by a self-driving truck. In 2020, the company started the American Connection Project along with
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
, Tractor Supply Co., and the
Mayo Clinic Mayo Clinic () is a Nonprofit organization, private American Academic health science centre, academic Medical centers in the United States, medical center focused on integrated health care, healthcare, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science ...
to set up free wifi locations during the COVID-19 pandemic.


Corporate affairs

The company's headquarters is in Arden Hills, Minnesota, in suburban Minneapolis-St. Paul.


Dairy foods

* Land O Lakes (the apostrophe is sometimes removed in product branding) licensed to
Dean Foods Dean Foods was an American food and beverage company and the largest dairy company in the United States. The company's products included milk, ice cream, dairy products, cheese, juice, and teas. It processed milk in the United States under a numb ...
* Alpine Lace * Land O'Lakes Food Service * Kozy Shack * Vermont Creamery


Animal feed

* Purina Animal Nutrition * Mazuri * Land O'Lakes Feed


Seed/crop protection

* WinField United (merged with United Suppliers in Spring 2016)


Butter packaging and controversy

The Land O'Lakes indigenous woman, named Mia, holding the butter box was painted in 1928 by Brown & Bigelow illustrator Arthur C. Hanson.Houze, Rebecca (2016).
New Mythologies in Design and Culture: Reading Signs and Symbols in the Visual Landscape
'. London: Bloomsbury. . p. 93.
According to Land O'Lakes, the original image of Mia was "simplified and modernized" in 1939 by Jess Betlach and has undergone many minor modifications since as the enduring logo of the co-op. Red Lake Ojibwe artist Patrick DesJarlait updated Mia's image in the 1950s. DesJarlait publicly believe in fostering an open dialogue between Native Americans and non-Natives. Thus, Mia's clothes were changed to match specific Ojibwe styles, and the background became a specific location in the Ojibwe territory, the Red Lake in Minnesota. The original image is an example of the infinite-loop motif or Droste effect, in which the image is repeated, in theory infinitely, within itself. In 2018, the image was changed to depict only the head of the Native woman (doing away with the Droste effect). In February 2020, the company announced that after 92 years, it was removing the image of the Native American woman. The use of an indigenous woman as a mascot had been criticized as a racist stereotype, and the decision to change the label was praised by some Native advocates such as
Peggy Flanagan Peggy Flanagan (; born September 22, 1979) is an American politician and Native American activist serving as the 50th lieutenant governor of Minnesota since 2019. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), Flanagan ser ...
, Lieutenant Governor of
Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...
and a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. However, the move was not without controversy within the Native community. DesJarlait's son, Robert DesJarlait, disagreed with claims that the logo was offensive or stereotypical. "Basically, it was giving the previous generation a sense of almost empowerment to see a Native woman on a box of butter. It gave them a sense of cultural pride," he said. "After seeing those posts, I said, 'that's right, that's why my dad created this image to begin with.


Allegations of animal mistreatment by supplier

In September 2009,
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA; ) is an American animal rights nonprofit organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president. Founded in March 1980 by Newkirk and animal rights ...
(PETA) released an undercover video allegedly depicting
animal abuse Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse, animal neglect or animal cruelty, is the infliction of suffering or harm by humans upon animals, either by omission (neglect) or by commission. More narrowly, it can be the causing of harm or suffe ...
of dairy cows at a
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
supplier for Land O’Lakes, Inc. The video showed unclean conditions in the barn and milking parlor and cows with infections and illness. The supplier's employee was found not guilty of animal cruelty charges resulting from this incident and an investigation by veterinarians hired by Land O’Lakes revealed no mistreatment of animals, but the veterinarians suggested that bedding, hygiene, ventilation and animal disposal practices be improved. Land O'Lakes states that it is supportive of the dairy industry's National Dairy F.A.R.M.: Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) animal care standards. In May 2017, the animal rights organization Animal Outlook (formerly Compassion Over Killing) released undercover footage of cruelty to animals at DFA supplier Mason Dixon Farms, which documented "cows being kicked in the face, punched in their sensitive udders, excessively shocked with an electric prod, jabbed with a pens or elbows, and having their tails twisted or bent by workers." The footage resulted in the firing of one employee.


Licensing

Since August 2012, WhiteWave Foods has licensed the Land O'Lakes name and sold coffee creamers and fluid dairy products under the brand. Land O'Lakes brand milk is licensed to
Dean Foods Dean Foods was an American food and beverage company and the largest dairy company in the United States. The company's products included milk, ice cream, dairy products, cheese, juice, and teas. It processed milk in the United States under a numb ...
in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin.


In popular culture

* In Gary Shteyngart's 2010 satirical novel '' Super Sad True Love Story'', Land O'Lakes has merged with two major auto companies to become a major consolidated corporation, ''Land O'Lakes GMFord''. * In December 2019, an autonomous truck drove itself from Tulare, California to
Quakertown, Pennsylvania Quakertown is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of 2020, it had a population of 9,359. The borough is south of Allentown, Pennsylvania, Allentown and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Bethlehem and nor ...
in a period of three days carrying a load of 40,000 pounds of Land O’Lakes butter. * Mentioned by rapper Raekwon on 'Casablanca', the third track on his sophomore album, 'Immobilarity'.


See also

* List of dairy product companies in the United States


References

*


General bibliography


Land O'Lakes Corporate Website
* Kenneth D. Ruble. ''Men to Remember: How 100,000 Neighbors Made History''. (Lakeside Press, 1947), a company-sponsored history of the early years of Land O' Lakes (1921–1945). See especially pp. 163–167 and 181–184, concerning the evolution of the name of the product into the company name. * Truman Torgerson. ''Building markets and people cooperatively: the Lake to Lake story''. published by Land O'Lakes, Inc., Lake to Lake Division – Technology & Engineering – 352 pages, 1990. See especially page 151 to 160, which details conflict with the National Farmers Organization.


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Land O'lakes Butter 1921 establishments in Minnesota Agricultural cooperatives in the United States Agricultural marketing cooperatives Dairy cooperatives Dairy products companies of the United States Dean Foods brands Food and drink companies based in Minnesota Food and drink companies established in 1921 Economy of the Midwestern United States Food manufacturers of the United States American brands Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2019 Race-related controversies in advertising and marketing Minnesota culture Culture of Saint Paul, Minnesota Cooperatives based in Minnesota