Land O’Lakes, Inc. Something Greater podcast: How a 100-year-old cooperative sees its future

ARDEN HILLS, Minn. (April 18, 2022) – In the latest episode of Something Greater, Land O’Lakes, Inc. Chief Marketing Officer Heather Malenshek shares how Land O’Lakes is bringing to life the stories of the cooperative as a powerful engine working in service of its farmer and retailer owners.

Since joining Land O’Lakes in September of 2020, Heather has focused on redefining the Land O’Lakes enterprise brand to truly encompass its unique cooperative structure and the diverse agribusinesses within—spanning crop inputs, animal nutrition, food production and sustainability.

In the episode Heather explains how a strong enterprise story supports farmers, retailers and even the planet:

“This idea of cooperative isn't just a name of a business model. For us, it's really in our DNA. It's how we operate. It's how we work together… If we want to mirror what our member owners do, they are relentless. Every day, they get out and they do it again.”

She continued, “I feel the spirit of Land O’Lakes is really in that idea of relentless cooperation.”

In the episode, Heather describes the role of Land O’Lakes—which is to magnify and champion farming’s true potential through relentless cooperation—before outlining the thought process behind the enterprise’s belief and purpose.

“Our belief, and Beth [Ford] says this all the time, is that our farmers are perhaps the original entrepreneurs who really changed the world for the better. We have these incredibly creative, resourceful people who are doing things for the betterment of their larger community and not for themselves. Yes, they're supporting their families, but really they're having a major impact on their communities at large,” said Heather. “We developed a sort of unifying purpose, we wanted to make sure that we were surrounding ourselves with something that was meaningful to our member owners, was meaningful to our employee base, was also meaningful to consumers. And for us, that is, we're putting farmers and retailers at the heart of creating a better world for all of us.”

She also shares the meaning of the enterprise’s new tagline: Rooted in Tomorrow™:

“We were started by dairy farmers, so it's in our roots…We're only going to be able to move into the future and be successful if we pay attention to what we've learned over the last 100 years... But we want to make sure that we are keeping a very good eye on the future and planning for the future. And so we felt that tagline really summed up both of those things.”

Hear more from Heather by listening to the full episode here.

Something Greater is an ag business and innovation podcast hosted by Land O’Lakes Chief Communications Officer Kim Olson. It brings together industry leaders for conversations about unlocking farming’s true potential and changing the world for the better. You can listen to it on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and more.

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