As used in this Act, unless the context or subject matter requires otherwise:
(a) "Agricultural products" include livestock and livestock products, dairy products, poultry and poultry products, wine and viticultural products, seeds, nuts, ground stock, horticultural, floricultural, forestry, bee and any and all kinds of farm products.
(b) "Supplies" include any and all types of supplies, machinery and equipment used by farmers as producers or used by farmers as consumers.
(c) "Association" means a corporation organized under or adopting the provisions of this Act, or a foreign association or corporation authorized to do business in this Commonwealth, organized under any general or special act as a cooperative association for the mutual benefit of its members and other patrons as farmers, and which confines its operations to purposes authorized by this Act and restricts the return on the stock or membership capital and the amount of its business with nonmembers to the limits placed thereon by this Act for associations organized hereunder and which qualifies to do business in this Commonwealth under this Act.
Associations shall be classified as and deemed to be nonprofit corporations, inasmuch as their primary object is not to pay dividends on invested capital, but to render service and provide means and facilities by or through which the producers of agricultural products may receive a reasonable and fair return for their products and obtain supplies and services on a cooperative nonprofit basis.
(d) "This Act" means this article, which may be cited as the "Agricultural Cooperative Association Act."
(e) "Member" includes the holder of a membership in an association without capital stock and the holder of voting stock in an association organized with capital stock.
(f) "Person" includes an individual, a partnership, a corporation and an association.
(g) "Patron" means a person using the marketing facilities of an association for the marketing of agricultural products, or a person using the purchasing or service facilities of an association for the purchase of supplies or the rendering of services.
(h) "Board" means the board of directors of an association.
(i) "Commission" means the State Corporation Commission of Virginia.
Code 1950, § 13-248; 1956, c. 428; 2010, cc. 317, 561.
Structure Code of Virginia
Chapter 3 - Cooperative Associations
§ 13.1-301. Organization of cooperative associations; purposes; name; par value stock required
§ 13.1-301.1. Amendments to articles of incorporation
§ 13.1-301.2. Adoption, change or repeal of bylaws; subject matter
§ 13.1-302. Limitation of individual stockholding
§ 13.1-303. Investment in other stock
§ 13.1-304. Purchase of business by issue of shares of stock
§ 13.1-305. Rights of subscribers before full payment
§ 13.1-306. Distribution of earnings
§ 13.1-307. Permissible limitation of stock ownership or voting rights
§ 13.1-308. Limitation of use of "cooperative" in corporate name
§ 13.1-309. Other cooperatives may come under article
§ 13.1-309.1. Foreign cooperatives
§ 13.1-310. Cooperative associations may give certain liens on rotating stocks
§ 13.1-311.1. Provisions relating to dissolution of and revocation of certificates of associations
§ 13.1-312. Liberal construction of article
§ 13.1-314. Qualification of incorporators
§ 13.1-316. Articles of incorporation
§ 13.1-317. Filing and recording articles of incorporation
§ 13.1-318. Amendments to the articles of incorporation
§ 13.1-322. Membership or voting stock certificates; transfers; dividends; nonvoting stock
§ 13.1-323. General and special meetings; how called
§ 13.1-324. Directors generally; executive committee
§ 13.1-325. Removal of director
§ 13.1-326. Officers generally
§ 13.1-327. Removal of officer
§ 13.1-329. Marketing contracts; enforcement; inducing breach; spreading false reports
§ 13.1-330. Recordation of marketing contracts
§ 13.1-331. Associations are not in restraint of trade
§ 13.1-332. Voluntary dissolution
§ 13.1-334. Application to existing associations
§ 13.1-336. Limitations of the use of the word "cooperative."
§ 13.1-337. Foreign associations
§ 13.1-338. Purchasing business of other associations, persons, firms or corporations; stock issued
§ 13.1-339. Merger or consolidation
§ 13.1-340. Sale, mortgage or other disposition of assets
§ 13.1-343. Application of general corporation laws
§ 13.1-344. Existing associations continued
§ 13.1-345. Verification no longer required; signing instrument containing misstatement as perjury
§ 13.1-347. Formation of worker cooperative; purpose
§ 13.1-349. Application of other laws
§ 13.1-350. Revocation of election to be governed as worker cooperative; limitation on mergers
§ 13.1-351. Qualifications of members; membership shares
§ 13.1-353. Net earnings or losses; apportionment, distribution, and payment
§ 13.1-354. Internal capital accounts; redemption of shares; collective reserve account