A group of members of the Economy Council of the Section for Agriculture at the Goetheanum made use of this year's BioFach in Nuremberg for strategic discussions on the future of the Charter Community for Associative Economic Activity. Concrete steps were taken for its further development.

The Economy Council at the Section for Agriculture formed the nucleus for the Agriculture Conference 2019 at the Goetheanum, bringing associative economics to the attention of the 800 participants in the week preceding the BioFach trade fair. Drawing strength from the inspiration of the conference, the Economy Council will in future promote associative trade as a forum for encounter, exchange and mutual learning. A tangible success of its work is the Charter for Associative Economic Activity drawn up in 2017.

The Charter Community nowadays means all those who have signed the Charter (and those who will sign in future) and who put the principles stated in it into practice. The Charter enables specific forms of cooperation between the charter signatories. This cooperation can be project-related, for example where the aim is to develop a joint seed fund. Other possibilities would be forms of mutual funding and loans or joint investments. The current version of the Charter is available at: https://www.sektion-landwirtschaft.org/en/thematic-areas/economy-council/

Associative profiles increase visibility

One of the next tasks will be to bring the Charter Community and the topic of associative economics to the wider public. This will involve gradually compiling associative profiles of all charter signatories. These profiles will reflect the special features of the individual enterprises and initiatives. The aim is to draw up and publish as many associative profiles as possible by the autumn. One objective is to present the work of the Charter Community at the next BioFach in 2020, possibly through an event.

Associative logo

In Nuremberg we also discussed whether the Charter Community would benefit from the use of an associative logo and what form this could take. In Luxembourg the OIKOPOLIS group which operates there already makes use of a "fair&associative" logo. According to the Charter, the use of the Luxembourg logo would be possible for all charter signatories, but naturally linked to compliance with as yet to be defined criteria.