Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
In Germany, the 'Regionalwert AG' operating in the Freiburg region is a citizen's
shareholder corporation that facilitates access to shareholders' capital for organic
farms and businesses. As such, it follows the objective of creating regional value not
only in financial terms but also in social and environmental terms.
Table 6.1 provides an overview of the initiatives' regional affiliations, different
organizational forms, purposes, and the number and types of actors involved.
Table 6.1. Characteristics of the three collaboration initiatives (Source: authors).
Initiative
CRIE Montado (PT)
Machinery Rings (UK)
Regionalwert AG (DE)
Region
and
approx.
size
Montemor-o-Novo,
1,200 km
2
; Alcácer
do Sal, 1,500 km
2
North East Scotland,
9,000 km
2
; Scottish
Borders, 4,500 km
2
Administrative district
of Freiburg, 9,000 km
2
Organi-
zational
form
Informal group of
agricultural
entrepreneurs
Legal agricultural
cooperative
Citizen shareholder
corporation
(Formal)
initiation
2009
1987
2006
Activities
Information and
experience sharing,
lobbying
Sharing of resources,
information sharing,
commodity exchange
Investment into organic
businesses through
shareholders,
information sharing,
commodity exchange
Actors
Farmers,
processing,
marketing
Farmers, supplier
businesses
(commodities, services,
etc.), organizations,
households
Shareholders, partner
businesses: farmers,
production, processing,
marketing, wholesale,
retail, catering
No. of
actors
(in 2012)
10 to 15
2,600 (Ringlink);
860 (Borders Machinery
Ring)
16 partner businesses,
460 shareholders
In all three initiatives, collaboration is a response to different pressures. Whilst
economic pressures were common to all three initiatives, the difficulties in acquiring capital
for investment in farming added to issues of farm succession (and economic viability) in
the case of Regionalwert AG in Germany. Other pressures included specialization of
production chains, sectoralization of administration and markets, and competitiveness of
global markets.
As discussed above, collaboration is regarded as one of the basic principles of human
behaviour, thus, collaborative action as such is not innovative. From a transition
perspective, however, these three initiatives represent new forms of collaboration and can
be identified as 'socio-technical' innovations as they have introduced new practices,
network connections or technology in their particular collaboration forms. CRIE Montado
(Fig. 6.1) innovated by creating a regional thematic group dedicated to implementing
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