Thanks to people like Melvin Doiron, new worker cooperatives are emerging. We have success stories. For example, the Lamèque fishing cooperative is one of the biggest cooperatives. A cooperative fish plant is a success story. The Fédération des caisses populaires acadiennes has 200,000 members out of a population of 240,000 inhabitants. That represents a penetration rate of approximately 75%. I believe that's undeniable.
It's true that we are currently facing challenges following the closing of branch offices, but I'm a supporter of the cooperative movement, and the Acadian people have always been supporters. The entire Acadian area of Prince Edward Island is known as one of the world capitals of cooperation. Virtually everything is done in cooperative form. A number of our community radio stations are set up in the form of cooperatives as well. We can almost say that the cooperative movement is in Acadians' genes. I believe the cooperative movement, as Mr. Doiron said, could become a decisive alternative.
Now let's talk about the agricultural plan. I know you're from an agricultural region. We still have good land back home. The thing is simply to reactivate it, to revive it. I believe that will be done more through cooperation. Today, we know it's difficult for a young person to start up a farm, especially in a region like ours. However, there are much more human-scale farm concepts that are re-emerging and that do not require 1,000 acres in order to be profitable. We're seeing that in the Charlevoix region in Quebec. I recently attended a meeting in that region and rural areas are being revitalized.
So, yes, the cooperative movement is definitely a decisive economic development solution for Acadians.