Introduction and Overview › Glossary for the Networking Language · 5 min read
The basic cost contribution describes the contribution with which members help sustain the fundamental reality of a farm.
It is not a classic product price.
Nor is it an additional fee.
It makes visible the costs that arise so a farm can work, maintain, harvest, regenerate, and exist long-term at all.
These include, for example:
The basic cost contribution helps prevent this reality from being hidden in the product price.
It shows:
A farm does not only produce a product.
A farm sustains a living place.
In conventional agriculture, the question is often asked:
What does a liter of olive oil cost?
Or:
What does a kilogram of food cost?
This question is understandable.
But it is not sufficient.
Because a farm has costs before a product is sold.
Trees must be cared for.
Soil must be protected.
Water must be retained in the landscape.
People must be able to work.
Tools must be available.
Risks from drought, diseases, crop failure, or fluctuating yields must be borne.
Especially with perennial crops like olive trees, the work does not begin only at the moment of harvest.
It happens throughout the year.
The basic cost contribution makes this work visible.
A basic cost contribution does not first ask:
How much can a product earn on the market?
Instead, it asks:
What does the farm need to work well, responsibly, and long-term?
This is an important difference.
Because regenerative agriculture requires time, care, and reliability.
It encompasses not only the quantity of the harvest but also the conditions under which this harvest is produced:
In the TEIKEI context, this reality should not remain an invisible burden on the farm.
It is considered and carried together, step by step.
The process can vary depending on the farm and community.
Basically, it involves several steps:
This includes current costs, labor input, production possibilities, condition of the land, risks, necessary investments, and development potential.
An assessment is made of what costs arise in a year so the farm can do its work.
For olive oil, this could mean, for example: What quantity is realistic under current conditions? What fluctuations are possible? What risks exist?
This results in a proposal for what contribution would be necessary so the farm’s reality is not borne by the producer alone.
The basic cost contribution thus becomes part of shared responsibility.
An olive farm does not only have costs for the harvested olives.
It has costs for the entire year.
These include, for example:
If these costs are only to be covered by the price per liter, pressure often arises.
Then either more must be sold, work must be done more cheaply, or care must be cut back.
The basic cost contribution seeks to change this pressure.
It asks:
How can we collectively sustain the foundation of agriculture so that good work remains possible at all?
A classic price often arises from market comparison, competition, and willingness to pay.
The basic cost contribution arises from the farm’s reality.
It is not only oriented toward what a similar product costs somewhere else.
It asks what this specific farm needs:
This makes the contribution more personal, comprehensible, and honest.
Through the basic cost contribution, members do not only support a finished product.
They support the foundation from which the product arises.
This includes:
The basic cost contribution is thus a tool for distributing responsibility more fairly.
For a farm, the basic cost contribution does not mean that everything must be perfectly calculated immediately.
At the beginning, an initial honest approximation is often sufficient.
What is important:
These questions form the foundation.
They can become more precise year by year.
Regenerative agriculture requires more than good intentions.
It requires time, attention, and a sustainable economic foundation.
Soil building, water retention, biodiversity, and long-term tree care do not happen incidentally.
They require work.
If this work is not seen and supported, it often remains the farm’s burden.
The basic cost contribution helps make this work visible.
It connects the ecological reality of the place with the social and economic responsibility of the community.
The foundation of agriculture begins before the farm: with seeds, planting material, animals, and crops.
Breeders can therefore also be supported by the entire network.
The way to do this is through a minimal basic cost contribution that members pay monthly and that goes to the breeders.
It is a separate contribution and not part of the basic cost contribution.
It is as minimal as possible and yet helps stabilize seeds and breeding.
This way, the work at the root of the food supply is also made visible and carried together.
The basic cost contribution is the contribution with which members support the real foundation of a farm.
It makes visible what agriculture truly needs:
Labor, time, soil care, water, responsibility, infrastructure, risk balancing, and long-term development.
It helps ensure that a farm is not only paid for its harvest but that the entire farm reality is seen and collectively supported.
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By Felix Schröder, with support from AI (ChatGPT)
Created on May 23, 2026 · Last updated on October 11, 2026
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