Time level: How it was – the LGB existed from 2012 to 2018. TEIKEI grew out of it.
In short: The Lebensmittel Gemeinschaft Basel (food community Basel) was an association organised as a food coop. Usually around a hundred and at its peak about 160 members supplied themselves together with regional organic and Demeter food, carried a CSA farm and cleared their own work in their own unit, the LGB.
|
|
| Place |
Basel, Switzerland |
| Period |
2012 to 2018, the project has ended |
| Legal form |
Association |
| Organisation |
Food coop with member fees, product coordinators and a weekly pick-up day |
| Members |
usually around 100, about 160 at its peak |
| Room |
low-cost room from the City of Basel with storage, kitchen and pick-up |
| Radius |
products from the region, 60 to 100 kilometres at most |
| Accounting |
prepaid account in Swiss francs and the community’s own unit “LGB” |
- Ordered together: All members ordered in a shared tool until a fixed deadline. Then the quantities were bundled: storable food came from stock, fresh food was ordered from the farms.
- Picked up once a week: The farms brought their produce to the room before pick-up day. Members weighed their own amounts, added items from the shelf and confirmed in the tool.
- Carried base costs together: Member fees paid the rent and the base costs of a CSA farm the community helped to build.
- Kept two accounts: External costs such as the full farm price were paid in francs. The margin for room and organising – the community worked with 20 percent – could be paid in LGB. LGB went to those who organised pick-ups, sourced products from farms or tidied the store.
- Made things ourselves: Members could process products in the room’s kitchen, for example bake bread, and offer them as pre-orders through the tool.
- Looked beyond the region: Olive oil from Greece was the first product from outside the region – on the same principle.
- Members – carried the community with fees, orders and work.
- Product coordinators – kept in touch with the farms and put the offer together.
- Farms and producers from the region – made the offer and delivered for pick-up day.
- A CSA farm – helped to build; the community carried its base costs through member fees.
- City of Basel – provided the room at low cost.
- Urban Agriculture Basel (external) – the network for urban agriculture in Basel, in whose context the LGB emerged and which still lists it as a project.
- Social Economy Basel – regional economic cycles and complementary currencies such as the NetzBon were a close point of reference.
Open: The names of the farms involved, the CSA farm and the exact founding date are still missing. Please add them if you know them.
The LGB mission statement set criteria for products that were passed on to potential producers:
- produced at least to Bio Suisse standards, no label required; biodynamic farming and permaculture matched the community’s understanding,
- seasonal and regional, no air freight,
- trade as directly as possible with producers instead of intermediaries and wholesale,
- fair, decent conditions for the farms’ workers,
- vegan products actively promoted, animal products “in moderation” and “consciously”,
- as little packaging as possible.
Trust replaced control: “Since control by scientific criteria is hardly possible for us, we build relationships and thus trust with our producers.”
Products such as olive oil needed intermediaries. The mission statement foresaw working with organisations that share the same values. But wholesalers would not share the information the community needed according to its values – origin, working conditions and who gets which share of the price.
So TEIKEI built on the LGB and took on this responsibility itself: with direct ties to farms in Europe and open price shares. Today the communities’ orders are coordinated through the TEIKEI Agora.
↑ One level up: Switzerland
Compiled by the TEIKEI editorial team with support from AI (Claude)
Created on 24 October 2026 · Last updated on 24 October 2026
Questions or comments? support@teikei.us