Lover Earth: Lets Talk About Money

Lets talk about money. The most obvious manifestation of it being the price of the boxes. I believe that the prices are not good, that they should be higher. However we, here at Cutia Taranului, don’t set prices, nor do we want to. When producers join Cutia Taranului we help them find a price that is right for their box. In the spirit of such guidance, we would like to guide you the members of Cutia Taranului, together with your producers, into a conversation about money and price. It may take some time and require some patience to enter make this conversation meaningful and good, so please bear with us.

Before we jump into this process I’d like to try to give us a context, a kind of lighthouse we can seek out when we get lost in this potentially complicated conversation. I’d like to talk about Mother Earth.

In his book Sacred Economics, Charles Eisenstein talks about the metaphor of Mother Earth. He points out that it is a ubiquitous metaphor that you can find almost anywhere on the planet, across continents, languages, cultures, developed societies, native communities. There are references to Mother Earth everywhere.

Eisenstein places focus on the word „Mother” and it’s implications. The word „Mother” speaks to a child-ish relationship. Whatever a child needs, mother provides. It is a relationship in which giving flows from mother to child. It is a relationship in which receiving may seem obvious … whatever a child needs miraculously appears.  It is also a good description of the relationship between human beings and the planetary ecological system, a not yet matured relationship. Whatever we need we take, with little consideration to the efforts required to produce what we need or to the consequences of producing it. It is indeed a relationship with Mother.

Eisenstein then asks what if what we are witnessing at a planetary scale is a coming of age of humanity? What if humanity is finally stepping out of its rebellious teen phase and maturing into adulthood which brings with it more profound relationships? What if we could focus the almost magical skills & tools that we have acquired in our coming-of-age, and enter a new relationship with the planet? This relationship would be less one-directional and more mutual. The planet would care for us and we would care for the planet. We would no longer be treating her as mother, but more as lover. Lover Earth.

The word for peasant in Romanian is taran (pronounced tsaran) and literally means „man of the earth”. The producers of Cutia Taranului are peasants, people of the earth. They live on (physically) and off (as in „providing”) the land. Their collaboration with the earth yields the food that nourishes you, the members. They are our direct representatives of forming a relationship with earth. They are our partner-lovers to Lover Earth.

It is in this context that I invite you, our members, to reflect about your part in Cutia Taranului and how your participation effects your producers. You have a direct relationship with their well-being. Their well-being directly effects their ability to relate with and be lovers to Lover Earth. What role does money play in that relationship?

• What makes a price good?
• How can you tell that the price of your box is right?
• Is the price you are currently paying a good one?

Please, if you care to, leave your thoughts in the comments below.