Introduction and Overview › Glossary for the Networking Language · 3 min read
Pricing and cost assumption are two distinct levels in TEIKEI.
Prices make visible the costs associated with a product, a box, or a harvest share.
Cost assumption describes the further step in which a community collectively bears the financial foundations of its supply.
This distinction is important because collective cost assumption cannot simply begin at the farm.
It only becomes sustainable when the off-take side functions reliably.
In existing supply structures, food is often represented through prices per kilogram, box, or product.
In the TEIKEI Agora, such pricing logic is also initially necessary to make costs transparent.
This includes, for example:
These price components make visible the actual expenses associated with a harvest share or product group.
However, they do not yet constitute full cost assumption from the farm.
Pricing logic is a necessary intermediate step on the path to collective cost assumption.
This is not just about prices per kilogram, box, or individual product.
The key is the transformation of this pricing logic into regular harvest shares.
The farm reports in advance which harvests are expected to be available in which months. Based on this, the possible harvest shares are formed for each month.
Depending on the season, this can result in varying numbers or compositions of harvest shares.
The important intermediate step is:
These harvest shares are distributed and paid for before the harvest.
This gives the farm more stable off-take and better planning reliability without the community already assuming the full basic costs of the farm.
Costs continue to be represented through harvest shares.
The farm is not yet supported through its entire transparent financial needs.
Only when it becomes visible through this process:
can the next step be prepared: a contribution round that no longer considers only individual harvest shares but the shared cost basis of the supply.
Cost assumption from the farm means that a community does not just pay for individual harvest shares.
It assumes the financial foundation necessary for the farm to reliably provide its production to the community.
This includes, for example:
This step requires that the off-take side is already sustainable.
It needs trust, commitment, transparent quantities, and recurring contribution rounds.
The path from price per kilogram to collective cost assumption is described in the Transformation Guide.
There, it is shown step by step how product-based pricing logic can first become regular harvest shares, then contribution rounds, and later collective cost assumption from the farm.
The TEIKEI Agora supports this transition through various building blocks.
It does not replace the community process.
However, it helps to make the necessary information visible, structurable, and repeatable.
Important connections are:
In this context, prices are not an end goal.
They are a tool to make existing costs visible.
Cost assumption is the further step in which a community takes responsibility for the financial foundations of its supply.
The transition between both levels requires a stable off-take side.
Therefore, pricing logic, harvest shares, user groups, contribution rounds, and Agora modules are interconnected.
← Letter K · All Terms A–Z
By Felix Schröder, with support from AI (ChatGPT)
Created on May 5, 2026 · Last updated on October 10, 2026
Questions or feedback? support@teikei.us