DEAR SIR: It was with deep interest that I read ICOS president Jerry Long’s acerbic response (05/06/21) to Jack Kennedy’s online article (30/05/21) titled Time for change on co-op boards.

It was typical of the reaction when the status quo is challenged.

There can be no doubt of the service and benefit that the co-operative movement has provided to farmers – that’s not to say improvements cannot be made to the representative process of our co-ops.

For example, limit to any one period to be served by a board member, to preclude a member from the board who in any way has brought the co-op into disrepute and to allow all members who supply produce to the co-op to become eligible to participate in the representative structure (skin in the game) – without further constraints of minimum spend.

I fully agree that democracy is the best form of governance, but democracy comes in many varied forms – ideally democracy should be influenced from the ground up, but is more often influenced and manipulated from the top down.

The representative structures in our co-ops need to be nurtured and encouraged to do exactly what they were set up to do, represent the interests and opinions of the general body of members, not to be used as an extension of the sales divisions of our multinational organisations.