| |
| |
|
| |
Community Supported Agriculture
Learn More |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
Related Articles &
Suggested Reading
|
|
|
|
|
|
 
|
Community Supported
Agriculture
When you join a CSA - a Community Supported Agriculture program - and buy
a share in the harvest of a local or regional farm, you cross a threshold
of discovery. You discover where your food comes from, who your farmer is,
and who is in your community.
Fresh Basil from a Church Basement
The first discovery is the pleasure of local food. You subscribe to a share of
a farm's produce, typically paying up front or in stages, and then receiving
a box of produce every week throughout the growing season. The CSA farmers
harvest the vegetables that are ripe and bring them to the pickup site,
which may be a church basement, a college courtyard, a community center,
or the farm itself. Each week you receive the bounty of a local farm and
it is always a surprise -- fresh, nutritious, full of taste and health.
You enter the rhythm of the seasons -- the first tender greens of
spring give way to the tomatoes, peppers, herbs and fruits of summer, the
squash and root vegetables of fall, and the potatoes, carrots, onions, and
greens of winter. You learn that individual CSA programs can supply not
only vegetables, fruits and herbs, but also bread, milk and yogurt, eggs,
cheeses, meats and honey.
Everybody Eats
 In the words of CSA pioneer Robyn Van En, "growing food is the common thread
throughout the world, in that everybody eats. It connects everyone across all party
lines, all ethnic and religious differences." There can be challenges in eating
seasonally and experimenting with new vegetables -- many of us feel we don't have
the skills or the time to cook and eat together. CSA programs have responded with
cooking and nutrition classes, sharing recipes, and potluck suppers. We are
rediscovering the joy of cooking, of connecting with our ingredients, of sharing
food with our families and friends. Connecting with each other over the week's
fresh eggplants and the best soup recipes builds community along the way. CSA
can then be a great entry point to get people talking to their neighbors across
race and class about food justice issues.
Food Justice for All
A priority of many CSA initiatives is to bring healthy food into low-income
communities. Through various pricing options -- including spreading out payments
over time, work shares, sliding-scale prices, accepting food stamps and selling
shares to food-assistance agencies -- low income CSA members often get the greatest
produce bang for their buck (or for their food stamps).
Well-managed CSA can be the beginning of real food system change for everyone
from the lowest income member to the farmer. With just a pickup site, a willing
farmer, and active community organizers, CSA can bring just-picked, delicious
produce to an area where vegetables are scarce -- making CSA a relatively simple
change to a neighborhood's food system, as compared to opening a market or grocery
store.
CSA initiatives are essential to farmers as well. As Tom Spaulding of
Angelic Organics learning Center points out, CSA is not
a middle-class movement of rich farmers. "CSA farmers who themselves lack
healthcare and sustainable livelihoods are subsidizing the production of the
highest-quality food in a society that is focused on cheap food."
A strong
relationship between farmer and shareholders can ensure that the CSA is just
and advantageous for the farmer. Beginning-of-season payments provide cash at
the beginning of the season when the farmer needs it most, and members contribute
volunteer labor and administrative duties as they share the risks and benefits
of the harvest.
Knowing Your Farmer
CSA farmers describe how much contact with members means to them, how the
hard work of farming is changed "by this human web." CSA members cross another
threshold of discovery in getting to know their farmer. The farmer may visit the
pick-up site and talk to the members, write a newsletter about the farm, or
invite CSA members to visit. Knowing the farm is an extraordinary experience
for many of us living in cities: learning how a farm can flourish, how soil can
become more fertile through sustainable growing methods, and how animals are an
integral part of the whole cycle of life.
CSA Past and Future
CSA came to the USA from biodynamic farmers in Europe and from models in Japan,
where it is called teikei, meaning "food with a farmer's face."  CSA pioneer and
farmer Elizabeth Henderson estimates that there are about 1700 CSAs in the US now,
with each farm having as many as several hundred or as few as a dozen shareholders.
CSA programs continue to thrive around the world,
and CSA is connecting with many diverse institutions -- schools and colleges,
soup kitchens and food banks, farm stands or farmers' markets, restaurants,
hospitals, and businesses. CSA is succeeding and expanding because it
represents not just a different way of farming, but a different social
and economic model, one based on principles of community, cooperation,
and justice.
People join CSA programs for various reasons: they need fresh, nutritious
food, they want their children to know where their food comes from, they want
to support local farmers. Often they find that fresh, high-quality produce is
just one of the many benefits they receive. Through contact with other members,
farm newsletters and special events or work days on the farm, members often
make new friends, gain a sense of community, feel more connected with the
source of their food, learn new ways to prepare and enjoy produce, and feel
the satisfaction of supporting a model of farming that reflects their values.
Updated 7/2007
|
