wrote on Sep 27^th, 2009 at 10:50am:

P.S. Just a thought....are there enough of us out there to start our own cooperative ???? anyone interested??

It's an attractive thought on the surface but whether it would fly or not is another matter.  "are there enough of us out there ?".  I don't know if Nigel has a handle on how many of the members live close enough to Tortosa (in any direction) to make it viable and how many of those live on campo and produce crops (olive, citrus, carob etc.)
I assume you perceive the advantages as being increased buying power and sharing equipment etc.  One small/medium tractor with all the implements (including backhoe) would probably be more than adequate.  One big sprayer, one small (100L) would probably cover all requirements.  Maybe two or three trailers of various sizes.  Smaller stuff such as chainsaws probably wouldn't be worth throwing into the mix.  I wouldn't mind betting that a lot of the local farmers/finca'ers have similar arrangements.  It's hard to see how each guy with one field of crops could justify the outlay on such kit for the amount of annual use it gets.
Another advantage would be the sharing of knowledge and experience.
Possible difficulties.  I've had experience of trying to organise expats into a cohesive mass.  At the time of running a poll to guage commitment, there will usually be a big majority of "yes" votes.  At the time of calling on that commitment, it will usually evaporate at the same speed as gin thrown on a BBQ.  There would also have to be a set of strict, enforcable rules to govern use of shared resources and from what I've seen on this forum, matters of discipline  :-[  There seem to be more than enough squabbles on here which if translated into a physical entity could prove to be diasasterous.
For what it's worth,
Bigyin