Commodities Produced by Religious Communities on the Food Market: Competitive Advantage or Ruining Reputation?

Recently the ecosystem of religious life had gone through radical changes: by the emerging of new religious movements the choices became freer than previously. Being born into a religious group does not necessarily mean that one needs to stay there forever. And by the emerging of free choices the nature of sacral life had changed in its fundamentals as well: religious communities are not in monopolistic situation anymore, they are not protected by the state in this position either, as before, and the number of believers may change rapidly as well. This means that churches need to take their maintenance and promotion into their own hands. In the present days religious communities engage themselves more and more often in commercial activities including marketing, PR and usually even for-profit activities such as service provision and product sales. Krishna-believers in Hungary started off as a self-serving economy, but soon overproduction made it possible for them to sell their products to the wider public as well. In my research I examined the products they offer and the effect of their commercial activities on their reputation. During the research process I compare the activities of Hungarian Krishna-believers to those of the communities in other countries. My aim was to find out how much the Krishna Valley in Hungary is a pioneer among the Krishna-conscious communities in Europe in the commercial activities and how these engagements affect their reputation. In my research I primarily relied on the results of my in-depth interviews and to draw conclusions about the effects of commercial activities on the reputation of churches. As my research has shown, engaging in commercial activities does not affect religious communities as badly as many would think, and this may even be a path of progress for Krishna-conscious groups around Europe.