ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the socially oriented activities engaged in by some members of the German organic sector, highlighting their motives as well as the difficulties they face in realising their ideals. The main hypothesis of the project Regional Wealth Reconsidered was that a combination of market and non-market motives and activities is necessary to be able to achieve sustainable economic forms. However, the processing and consumption of organic food in East Germany has not kept pace with production. Unlike the conventional agriculture and food sector, which is stagnating or even shrinking, the organic sector in Berlin-Brandenburg has grown in the past two decades and is creating new jobs and income. Sustainable development requires a blend of economic and altruistic entrepreneurial behaviour and, thus, incentives for a combination of economic and non-economic activities. Limitations on available time coupled with economic pressures are endangering this more holistic type of economy.
