Project
1€ = 1G
La Graine (The Grain) is the complementary local currency for citizens of the Montpellier region. It offers a collective approach to energize the local economy and short circuits with the providers of goods and services named here as Producers (merchant, craftsman, artist, caregiver, etc.).
La Graine ticket or coupon is a service voucher with the same legal value as a restaurant ticket or a gift voucher. The coupons are secure and available in 5 different amounts: 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20 Grains. This local currency is available at a network exchange counter, where euros are exchanged for Grains. If you want to exchange Grains for euros, the conversion costs are 2% and are used to operate the network and the currency.
Implementation: The Producers undertake to offer a range of locally produced and eco-responsible goods and services. It is also a social and united project of appropriation of the territory and the exchanges which make it rich, with its capacity to re-invent an economy of "living together".
Means: La Graine relies on a network of French local currency known as the MLCC (La Monnaie Locale Complémentaire et Citoyenne), supported by La Nef, an alternative financial cooperative to banks.
Résultat : Pour qu’une monnaie locale fonctionne, elle doit engendrer des interactions entre un maximum d’acteurs (producteurs et consommateurs). Aujourd’hui, la Graine représente 292 utilisateurs de cette monnaie, 57 prestataire et partenaires. Plus concrètement, ce sont 21 200 graines mises en circulation ( et 5 100 reconverties) en mai 2019.
Results: For a local currency to work, it must generate interactions between a maximum of actors (producers and consumers). Today, La Graine represents 292 users of this currency, 57 providers and partners. More specifically, 21,200 Grains were put into circulation (and 5,100 reconverted) in May 2019.
Context
Complementary to the euro, La Graine, in and around Montpellier, is a re-appropriation of money, and also a lever to transform our consumption, our trade and our collective economic organization.
Indeed, it is an alternative to our current banking system thanks to the revaluation of our local economy, multiplying territorial exchanges, based on the key notion of non-speculation; a dynamic circular use unrelated to global financialization.
It is also a tool for reflection on and awareness of our environmental impact, with the aim of improving consumption, production and marketing practices: giving people back their place, recognizing our environment for its true value and positioning ourselves as responsible consumers.
Project leaders
Supported by the Alternative for Local Economic and Social Development Association (A.D.E.S.L), La Graine was put into circulation in September 2018 after three years of reflection to develop the local economy.
The project developed in 2019:
- manage foreign exchange counters in real time,
- study the addition of a digitized Grain,
- double the number of providers, triple the number of consumers, triple the number of Grains in circulation.
There are over 50 complementary currencies on the French territory.
Written by Claire Caillaud, LFC volunteer - May 2019.
Last modification : 29 Apr 2020.
La Graine
La Graine (The Grain) is the complementary local currency for citizens of the Montpellier region. It offers a collective approach to energize the local economy and short circuits with the providers of goods and services named here as Producers (merchant, craftsman, artist, caregiver, etc.).