§ 13. Purposes for which general cooperative corporations may be formed. A cooperative corporation may be created under this chapter primarily for mutual help, not conducted for profit, for the purposes of assisting its members, including other cooperatives with which it is affiliated, by performing services connected with the purchase, financing, production, manufacture, warehousing, cultivating, harvesting, preservation, drying, processing, cleansing, canning, blending, packing, grading, storing, handling, utilization, shipping, marketing, merchandising, selling, financing or otherwise disposing of the agricultural and food products of its members or of any by-products thereof, including livestock waste or other organic agricultural wastes and the capture of methane and other gases for the generation and use or sale of energy, as defined in section 1-103 of the energy law, or connected with the acquisition for its members of labor, supplies and articles of common use, including livestock, equipment, machinery, food products, family or other household and personal supplies, to be used or consumed by the members, their families or guests, or for carrying on any other household operation or educational work in home economics and cooperation by or for its members, or for buying, selling or leasing homes or farms for its members, or building or conducting housing or eating places cooperatively, or for furnishing medical expense indemnity, dental expense indemnity, or hospital services to persons who become subscribers under contracts with such corporations in the manner provided in article forty-three of the insurance law, or for the purpose of organizing agency or credit corporations as provided in article seven of this chapter, but a corporation so organized as a credit corporation shall not have power to engage in any other activities. A certificate of incorporation, which includes the purpose of carrying on educational work, shall have attached thereto the consent of the commissioner of education. A worker cooperative may be formed for any lawful business purpose and may be conducted for profit.
