What is Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)?
Over the past ten years an alternative to our anonymous food supply system has emerged: Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Farms using this direct marketing method are changing the nature of conventional food shopping, where we are unlikely to know where our food is grown, let alone who grows it. Member-subscribers to a community supported farm pay a seasonal, monthly, or weekly fee to receive regular shipments of fresh produce, which varies in content according to the season. The produce is generally harvested no more than a day before delivery to members, so it’s fresher and more nutritious than what you will find in a supermarket. This direct transaction between farmer and consumer is mutually beneficial. It eliminates the extra costs necessitated by a middle person, and it is more secure for farmers, because they have a known, reliable buyer. . Most CSAs send out a newsletter with their boxes of produce, and some also include recipes and serving suggestions. Farms are usually o
For starters, its an integral part of a farm. Recent media coverage of CSAs has inspired some non-farmers to become distributors of local produce, which is most certainly not a CSA. The CSA model connects eaters to real farmers in a way no other distribution system can. Farmer’s markets, at least locally, are troubled with “resellers”, as well as factory farm practices, employees staffing booths who have never set foot on the farm they represent, and the high cost of inspections that don’t do the job they’re designed to do. What’s more, many markets don’t have a reputation for providing organic produce, which has a circular effect of not attracting organic buyers, so when the organic farmers do show up, they get discouraged.
Community-supported agriculture is a relationship of mutual support and commitment between local farmers and community members who pay the farmer an annual membership fee to cover the production costs of the farm. This guarantees the farmer a livelihood and enables many small to moderate scale sustainable, organic farms to remain in business. In turn, community members receive a weekly share of the harvest during the local growing season, from someone they know, who produces food using methods they want to support.
At their most fundamental level, CSA farms provide a weekly delivery of sustainably grown produce to consumers during the growing season (approximately June to October). Those consumers, in turn, pay a subscription fee. But CSA consumers don’t so much “buy” food from particular farms as become “members” of those farms. CSA operations provide more than just food; they offer ways for eaters to become involved in the ecological and human community that supports the farm. What does CSA membership involve? Membership arrangements vary among farms. For instance, some CSA operations deliver their food to the neighborhoods where members live, while others arrange for members to come to the farm and help make deliveries. Some CSA farms expect members to work on the farm at least once during the season while others only expect members to support the farm with their membership. Although each CSA farm makes its own arrangements with its members and has its own expectations of them, being involved
CSA is a partnership of mutual commitment between a farm and a community of supporters which provides a direct link between the production and consumption of food. Supporters cover a farm’s yearly operating budget by purchasing a share of the season’s harvest. CSA members make a commitment to support the farm throughout the season, and assume the costs, risks and bounty of growing food along with the farmer or grower. Members help pay for seeds, fertilizer, water, equipment maintenance, labor, etc. In return, the farm provides, to the best of its ability, a healthy supply of seasonal fresh produce throughout the growing season. Becoming a member creates a responsible relationship between people and the food they eat, the land on which it is grown and those who grow it. This mutually supportive relationship between local farmers, growers and community members helps create an economically stable farm operation in which members are assured the highest quality produce, often at below retai
