visitor center industry food processing founded 1919 headquarters cabot vermont united states website cabotcheese.coop the cabot creamery cooperative is an american dairy agricultural marketing cooperative which is owned by local dairy farmers in new england and the agri mark cooperative company . originally started as cabot farmers cooperative creamery in 1919 by farmers in cabot vermont it was taken over by the agri mark cooperative in 1992 . although they are technically owned by agri mark co op ; local dairy farmers in new england own cabot also . contents 1 history 2 ownership 3 operations 4 legal violations 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit the original plant had an investment of 3 700 in total which was paid by 94 farmers in proportion to the number of cattle which each owned . the cooperative started out making butter with the excess milk produced and began shipping its products south . in 1930 it started making cheese . by 1960 the cooperative had 600 member farmers though the number of farms in vermont and across the nation were steadily shrinking . following a decline in membership the cabot farmers cooperative creamery merged in 1992 with agri mark a cooperative of 1 800 farm families in new england and new york 1 and was reincorporated as cabot creamery cooperative inc. a wholly owned subsidiary of agri mark . in 2008 there were about 400 cabot farms in vermont belonging to agri mark . 2 cabot has facilities in many locations including cabot vermont route 100 in waterbury vermont and quechee vermont as well as a newly added store in portland maine . each location offers samples of products from the expansive line of cabot goods specialty foods from local vendors and souvenirs . additionally at the cabot visitors center guided tours are given for those interested . 3 as of 2012 update about 1 200 members are in vermont upstate new york and new england . the rochdale principles remain a part of the cooperative . 4 5 6 the cabot village creamery was built in 1893 . 7 cabot began marketing cheese internationally in 2007 . wine spectator listed cabot cloth bound cheddar as one of 100 great cheeses of the world in 2008 . 8 also in 2008 cabot monterey jack received an award from the american cheese society . 9 ownership edit as a co op agri mark is a membership organization incorporated in delaware on april 21 1980 . the members of the agri mark cooperative who supply agri mark s equity capital and directly elect its directors are not stockholders of record so have no right under delaware statutory law to inspect the corporation s books and records . 10 only the directors hold a share of stock so are owners under delaware law . the co op retains much of the excess profit up to 150 000 per farmer as equity in the form of noninterest bearing loans . for farmers departing the co op this equity is repaid over seven years . dividends in excess of the retained equity are returned to the members . 11 the delaware stock corporation signs yearly marketing agreements with the farmers who produce milk . they can decline to resign any producer without reason at the end of the contract . operations edit in 1994 when the two companies merged they had 30 million in sales . this reached 350 million in 2008 . 11 legal violations edit on several occasions cabot has been penalized for pollution incidents by the vermont agency of natural resources . in 2000 cabot was cited for a minor violation of its indirect discharge permit and land use permit . 12 in 2007 cabot paid a 50 000 fine with an additional 50 000 funding of a supplemental environmental projects . 13 in 2007 cabot also pleaded guilty to violating the clean water act after an ammonia spill killed thousands of fish in the winooski river in july 2005 . the spill destroyed all aquatic life for 5.5 miles 8.9 km . 14 in 2011 the vermont attorney general s office alleged that some cabot products made in 2009 and 2010 could not be certified as free of rbst a hormone that causes cows to produce more milk . cabot settled with the state agreeing not to make such representations to pay a 65 000 fine and to donate 75 000 worth of dairy products to local food banks . 15 see also edit companies portal food portal list of cheesemakers references edit cabot cheese . agri mark . agri mark to halt use of bst . burlington free press . january 27 2009 . visit us . cabot creamery . about us . cabot creamery . land spreading . cabot creamery . faqs . cabot creamery . history . cabot creamery . the world of cheese 100 great cheeses . wine spectator . september 30 2008 . retrieved 2009 06 10 . pasanen melissa august 20 2008 . vermont cheesemakers win a variety of honors . burlington free press . shaw bs agri mark a b dunbar bethany 18 march 2009 . farmers upset about agri mark report . barton vermont the chronicle . p. 13 . state site state enforcement times argus state of vermont superior court washington unit in re agri mark inc. d b a cabot creamery cooperative docket no. 489 8 11 wncv external links edit www.cabotcheese.coop official website cabot cheese at website of agri mark parent co operative v t e cheesemakers individuals lucy appleby laura chenel sheana davis joseph harding alex james catherine mathieson lino saputo ignazio vella daphne zepos manufacturers beecher s handmade cheese groupe bel bothwell cheese cabot creamery charleville cheddar ch vr chard cowgirl creamery dci cheese company gossner foods lactalis marin french cheese company valley shepherd creamery winchester cheese company miscellaneous list of cheesemakers category food portal wikiproject food and drink retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title cabot creamery & oldid 741216960 categories agricultural marketing cooperativescompanies based in vermontcabot vermontagriculture in vermontcompanies established in 1919cheesemakersbenefit corporationsfood and drink companies of the united stateshidden categories articles containing potentially dated statements from 2012all articles containing potentially dated statements navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 26 september 2016 at 03 20 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact 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