What is our vision to be reached in the year 2030? 

1. Until 2030 all actors, which are directly contributing to the existence of our food supply chain, are functioning without the need of fossil fuels and its by-products. The energy demand for the operation in each field is covered directly and next door. The fields are defined as:

• cultivation and production/processing of food
• packaging and transporting of food
• distribution of food

2. Waste management / waste prevention

• waste management starts from prevention and implementing of circular systems on a local base
• reaching 2030, we won’t produce waste in the classical understanding anymore (which goes into a landfill/incineration plant)
• our products will be packed and distributed in refillable containers
• our single use (tertiary) packaging material will be produced from locally produced renewable resources and can be home-composted

3. Regenerative Agriculture

• reaching 2030, all our farmers are working in accordance with the principles of regenerative agriculture, performing on Level 3 of our regenerative agricultural roadmap
• new farms, which are in industrial agricultural still, are inspired and motivated to join the regenerative agricultural principles, starting from Level 0 and reaching Level 3

4. Circular, shared risk economy for the common good

• We strongly believe in circular and shared risk economical approaches. We are building networks, which are owned by the ones running it and performing a transition from single owned structures to participatory organised structures. Our non-profitable organization structure we are building can‘t be owned from a single person neither be sold for profit. The risk is shared through out all partners and actors of the organization. The organization itself is kept in the hands of the participators for the time the participators running the organization.

 

What is the TEIKEI organisation committed to (to reach the vision 2030)? 

TEIKEI is dedicated and committed to the below mentioned points:

1. Development and implementation of the scientific term of “True Cost Accounting”* into our bookkeeping.

2. We support Fair Trade, i.e. all the parties involved in our project receive the exact amount of the final price. This amount is needed to support their project financially sustainable and reach our vision. We are committed to ask every part of the network about their price development and are able to communicate it through out our complete network. This is part of our transparency policy.

3. The most important part of Fair Trade is transparency. We consider it our responsibility to collect and provide information to the people involved in the project. The information is about:

• The organisational structure
• The price development
• The quality measurements of the product/project/processes
• The work situation in the different work fields

4. We dedicate our time to get to know all our farmers and buyers on a personal level and keep communication alive to both sides. Where we can’t meet them in person, we maintain direct communication with them.

5. We adopt neutral position towards both our producers and our buyers. We present their work to all the actors involved in the project and bring them into contact with the suitable partner of our network where this is enriching the collaboration on a direct level and are taking over the role of facilitation and coordination only when needed.

6. We commit to unlearn the conventional term “market competition” as for us it carries only one bigger purpose in the future: It helps us to generate a better understanding about effective and more sustainable ways of organization. We need better soil, more biodiversity in agriculture, higher content of secondary plant substances in food, a balanced sharing of risks between all participants, transparent communication between partners, actors and buyers, innovative logistic solutions, circular packaging systems and deep understanding for each other’s needs.

7. This understanding of competition can serve to focus on an improvement and motivate us. We permit and indeed welcome competition/competitors as a source of inspiration. It motivates us to become better in the fields that we can improve. This way of improvement goes hand in hand with our vision for 2030.

8. We dedicate our job to generate motivation for small scale farmers that are using industrial farming practices to develop further their projects to ecological “Regenerative Farms”.

9. We dedicate our work for the small-scale farms thus far, that it becomes an attractive and innovative source of income for the still existing small-scale farmers and for the generations to come.  We insist that our work will contribute to keep the healthiest form of agriculture alive and revitalise this dying sector.

10. We develop the market for the smallholders’ family farmers in a way, that the most sustainable/healthy agricultural practices can be widely implemented. At the same time, we design forms of trade aligned with regenerative agriculture practices, so that the products can be commercially viable, and this kind of farming communities can earn their living.

11. We improve sustainability and environmental compatibility in the market, and we support the expansion towards this direction.

12. We are implementing an evidence based quality management which f.e. can show the quality of a product by its high secondary plant substances and the absence of harmful chemicals and environmental toxins. As well do we define the word “regenerative” by measurable facts like soil fertility, amount of microorganisms or density of different varieties in a cultivated area.

13. We support food and supply chain sovereignty, so that the entire food supply chain can become independent and free from any subsidies. We understand subsidies only as a catalyst, to set single impulses related to our vision 2030. But can’t rely on them in the long-term picture.

14. We understand the local and seasonal food production as the very base for the producing, processing and consuming communities; as well we are respecting the cultural impact of the local production. Therefore, we do just bring a product into another area, when it can’t be produced at its final destination, or the sum of the social, environmental and cultural benefit at its origin is higher than the negative impact at its destination.

15. We commit to the healthy seize of our organization. Reaching the healthy, seize our efforts towards the vision of 2030 and its implementations become affordable for the currant market situation. As well do we become a serious partner for our providers since we rise the demand on eco-materials and systems needed to reach our vision for 2030.  Once our heathy seize is reached, we are going to shift from quantifiable growth towards qualitative subsistence. 

• *True Cost Accounting is a new type of bookkeeping that does not just look at the usual financial
  values within a company, but also calculates the impacts on natural and social capital; or said
  differently, it calculates the impacts on the natural and social environment in which the company
  operates. These impacts are calculated in monetary terms, so the amounts can be incorporated in
  the True Cost books. The „hidden costs“ of production, which were externalised in the old system,
  are made visible and internalised.

 

What are our shoppers committed to? 

Our shoppers support their TEIKEI network in its vision for 2030. Beside these efforts our shoppers commit to the following points:

1. Our shoppers commit to business models that are waste-free by design, like packaging free and reusable systems and eco-friendly and sustainable transportation (limiting pollution emissions), and when it’s feasible avoiding fossil energy sources, like oil coal and natural gas.

2. Our shoppers foster positive healthy relationships with the producers and the trader: There is a story behind each product about the personalities involved in the project.  Our shoppers inform their customers in different ways about each story behind our products. Our shoppers cultivate mutual understanding towards their partners and maintain effective and direct communication throughout the collaboration.

3. Our shoppers support a true cost price development on all levels but especially for the farmers, so the healthiest system of agriculture can take place and be continued by future generations. Our shoppers aim towards converting each participant in the value stream into a financially healthy partner. Therefore, our shoppers support the smallholders by procuring their products from sustainable business networks.

4. Our shoppers support handcraft, especially in the agriculture level, which includes innovative, but low-tech and traditionally influenced manufactured products. Our shoppers consider the fact that the quantity and the taste of the products depend on the season and the natural climatic fluctuations and prefer unprocessed food over highly processed and do accepted the variation in appearance and taste of the natural production in between the production years.

5. Our shoppers are aiming towards covering the real cost/true price of the product, in which both the internal and the external costs of the final price can be covered, and it can be independent from any kind of subsidy.

6. Our shoppers strive to develop and follow a procurement process, which is closely related to the farmers and to the risks that can occur during the cultivation.

7. Our shoppers do understand that the environmental related problems of the food chain can’t be solved solely by focusing on one subject only (f.e. packaging). With this awareness the need becomes clear for our shoppers, to support the whole supply chain which is solving the problems beyond the waste and logistic subjects.

 

What are the organic farmers committed to?

Our farmers support their TEIKEI network in its vision of 2030. Beside these efforts our farmers commit to the following points:

1. Our farmers see the importance, to switch the narrative from «feeding their plant” to feeding the soil in which the plant is growing.

2. Our farmers commit themselves to the fundamental principles of organic agriculture without the need of being controlled by certifying institutions. To sustain/develop the fertility of the soil and the plants, the farmers use only locally produced fertilisers and if really needed: natural, organic  pesticides for pests and uncontrollable situations with the danger of a loss of their harvest.

3. Our farmers follow innovative agricultural practices and technologies, which includes a combination of smart technologies and renouncement of universally valid steps. The “do nothing approach” will be considered if it has shown valid effect on testing grounds. Big machines are used in farms solely, where it is really necessary and can’t be done by hand work and/or low- and mid-technologies.

4. Until 2030 the cultivation activities on the fields is based on regenerative agricultural methods* contributing to the maintenance of healthy soils and soil fauna, such as earthworms (sustenance of the health of soils, ecosystems, and people).

5. Our farmers strive to produce the highest quality of food, rich in secondary plant substances. 

6. Our farmers use particularly gentle processes during the cultivation and the processing of their products. In this way the freshness and the preservation of the valuable and healthy ingredients is guaranteed.

7. Our farmers are obligated to create an income for their families and community from the harvest and their work on the fields. One key for success and wealth is seen in cooperation. Therefore, our farmers will never sacrifice their health and the health of the environment in the name of profit and growth. Instead the solution for the aspiration towards (personal) development, wealth or to overcome difficult times is found in a cooperative approaches.
8. Our farmers provide access to their business plan including the organisational structure of their farm and price settings of its production. If our farmers don’t have a business plan yet, they are obligated to create one over time.
   Side note: TEIKEI is offering support and workshops to help out.

9. Our farmers strive for this type of agriculture; in which eventually during the production process no use of diesel oil and plastic material will be necessary until 2030.

10. Our farmers respect, that people without access to land are depending on people with land inside a community. Therefore, our farmers hold the responsibly to give access to their food production within the local community to people without access to land. This means by implication, that their production is exported just in that scale, that the fields are providing in excess of the local need. 

• *At the ecosystem level, natural areas within and around regenerative farms, along with the absence of harsh pesticides and chemicals, create suitable habitats for wild species. This enables species to grow both in number and variety. 

 

What are our service and material providers committed to?

Our service and material providers support us in all point of the vision 2030. Too, the following points are guaranteed:

1. Our providers deliver information about their price structure and its development.

2. Our providers are transparent about the origin of the raw materials and under which circumstances the labor is performed.

3. Our material providers provide information regarding the production waste management. If requested, TEIKEI will get a full list of the industrial slags which are occurring during the production process and how they are disposed of.

4. Our providers fully support TEIKEI in its mission of transparency and provides access to the information asked for and needed.