TEIKEI collaborates with people and structures that are willing to make responsibility visible.
These can be farms, community-supported agriculture (CSA) initiatives, food co-ops, logistics structures, processing businesses, regional networks, non-profit organizations, initiatives, or existing trade structures.
What matters is not the external form.
What matters is whether collaboration can be based on comprehensible connections.
TEIKEI can collaborate with structures if the following is visible:
Collaboration does not require perfection.
It requires openness, reliability, and the willingness to understand connections together.
For collaboration, at least the following is required:
The FairShare rate shows the ratio between the farm-gate price and the final price.
The smaller this rate, the greater the share that remains with the farm.
A FairShare rate of 8 to 12 is within the range of conventional trade.
For TEIKEI, it is important that collaboration moves in a different direction:
If profits or surpluses arise, it must be comprehensible how they are used.
For overarching structures, it is crucial that profits cannot be privately withdrawn.
Instead, it must be anchored in the statutes, bylaws, or comparable legal foundation that surpluses serve charitable purposes, joint supply, support for participating farms, infrastructure, or the further development of the network.
These points are not additional requirements.
They are the foundation for trust to become sustainable.
TEIKEI cannot collaborate with structures if essential connections remain invisible.
The boundary is reached when:
This boundary is not directed against individuals.
It protects shared responsibility.
TEIKEI is not a closed circle.
Collaboration can emerge with very different people and organizations.
Existing trade structures can also be part of a collaboration if they are willing to disclose origin, prices, FairShare rate, responsibility, ownership, money flows, and relationships.
What does not work is blind trust and good intentions.
TEIKEI must be able to understand the context in which a structure operates before collaboration.
This includes:
Trust emerges where these connections become visible.
TEIKEI requires transparency in both directions.
Consumers must be able to trace the path back to the farm.
Farms must be able to trace the path to consumers.
This means:
TEIKEI calls this two-way visibility Dual Traceability and Transparency.
It is a fundamental condition for collaboration.
An individual project can be organized in different ways.
A farm, a processing business, a logistics operation, or a regional supply project can exist as a private, cooperative, association-based, or corporate entity.
What matters is whether the collaboration remains transparent and accountable.
This also includes visible price formation and FairShare rate.
Overarching structures have higher requirements.
If a structure connects multiple farms, projects, regions, or supply circles, it needs a legal and organizational foundation that is not determined by capital pressure.
This also includes a binding regulation for handling profits.
In such structures, profits must not be privately withdrawn or used for the capital growth of individual owners.
The statutes, bylaws, or comparable legal foundation must stipulate that surpluses serve charitable purposes and flow back into joint supply, support for participating farms, infrastructure, or the further development of the network.
The following are particularly suitable for this:
The more responsibility a structure bears, the clearer it must be committed to the common good and the network.
Before a new collaboration, a conscious step of understanding is needed.
TEIKEI examines:
These questions are not a bureaucratic hurdle.
They help establish trust on a sustainable foundation.
TEIKEI can collaborate where responsibility becomes visible, comprehensible, and shareable.
TEIKEI cannot collaborate where origin, prices, FairShare rate, control, use of profits, or responsibility remain invisible at the decisive moment.
The clear boundary is therefore simple:
Collaboration requires visible connections.
Where this visibility is possible, trust can grow.
Where it is not possible, distance is needed.
One level up: Understanding Economics
Author: Felix Schröder, with the help of AI (ChatGPT)
Created: written by Felix Schröder › formatted in Markdown by ChatGPT › published by Felix Schröder › layout adjusted by Claude
Created: 2026-06-21 · Last updated: 2026-06-21 · Questions or feedback? support@teikei.us