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"Although it may seem a fine point, the primary need is not for the farm to be supported by the community, but rather for the community to support itself through farming. This is an essential of existence, not a matter of convenience. We have no choice about whether to farm or not, as we have a choice about whether to produce TV sets or not. So, we have to either farm or to support farmers, every one of us, at any cost. We cannot give it up because it is inconvenient or unprofitable." - Traugher M. Groh and Steven S.H. McFadden, Farms of Tomorrow: Community Supported Farms, Farm Supported Communities, 6.
Community Supported Agriculture
"The conventional food system is failing farmers, consumers and the environment... many people, individually and collectively, are seeking alternative arrangements for producing and consuming life-giving food and fiber. They want, on the one hand, to escape the clutches of a faceless, industrial agriculture, and on the other, to find a safer, more secure food supply. One model that has captured local and regional imagination is community supported agriculture (CSA)" DeLind, Community Supported Agriculture 2002: The State of the Art in Michigan, p. 1.
What is CSA?
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) provides an alterative to our conventional system of food production, distribution, and consumption. In the conventional system, food travels an average of 1,500 miles from field to table, producers and consumers rarely interact, and neither have control over their food supply. It is a system in which farmers, like inner-city populations, may have limited access to fresh food and require government assistance to purchase it. A CSA, by contrast, is a local institution. It represents a joint venture between growers and people who want to eat fresh, minimally processed, chemical-free food. Such a model has existed in Japan and Europe for decades, but was brought to the US in 1986. Since that time, it has grown from a few farms on the East Coast to over a thousand farms nationwide. There are now national and regional associations of CSAs.
No two CSAs are exactly alike. Each is adapted to the needs of its participating members and the history and resources of its area. Clearly, flexibility is one of CSAs principal characteristics, but there are others. CSAs are built on shared responsibility and trust. In short, they are built on a new set of relationships between people and their
natural environment. Growers agree to raise fresh food for members. Most CSAs raise vegetables, herbs, and flowers (often as many as 40-50 different varieties), but a few also keep bees for honey and/or raise animals for meat, milk, or eggs. And, while most CSAs provide shareholders with raw or unprocessed foods, a few, especially multi-farm CSAs, provide a range of local foods processed on and off the farm (e.g., pesto, salsa, beer, bread).Members, in turn, purchase shares before the season begins. This provides
the funds to pay the grower's salary and to cover pre-season expenses.
A share - usually sufficient to feed a family of four - can range in price from $250-900 per season, while the growing season can range from 16 weeks to a full year, depending on the region. (In Michigan, we average 16-22 weeks.) Membership numbers can also vary from a handful of members to thousands of participating households.Frequently, members are required, or invited, to work a designated number of hours for the CSA (e.g., two hours/month), weeding gardens, keeping books, tending bees, harvesting, or distributing produce. These tasks, as well as approving the CSA budget, selecting the crops grown, scheduling events, and developing organizational guidelines, can involve the full membership or a core group of members on a year-round basis. Because both members and farmers are invested in the farming operation, they are more willing to share the risks (e.g., poor harvests) and rewards (e.g., bumper crops and healthy food) of local food production. Food shares are distributed once or twice a week throughout the growing season at the farm or at distribution points within the community. A share in early June will look nothing like a share in early September.
Through their direct relationship to the farm, CSA members have the opportunity to become familiar with the natural rhythms and processes involved in growing good food. The wisdom of recycling and the effectiveness of intercropping, crop rotations, cover crops, and crop diversify can be realized first-hand. There is, as a result, a tendency for CSAs to be small in size (less than 10 acres), labor intensive, and organic. This is the case in Michigan. The prevailing philosophy stresses sufficiency and cooperation rather than continued expansion and competition. The objective is to create more humanly-scaled, earth-friendly, and place-based enterprises, thereby bringing soil, people, and good food closer together.
Learn more about community supported agriculture in Michigan by visiting CSA Farms.org. The Website provides basic information on CSAs, a listing of CSAs in Michigan in Excel format, a listing of harvested items for sale, a community farm newsletter, information regarding the 2004 CSA Conference, and other resources.
The Prairieland Community Supported Agriculture Website has an e-mail list for networking on Community Supported Agriculture, and is primarily for the benefit of its farmer participants.
The Alternative Farming Systems Information Center has a Website devoted to Community Supported Agriculture with many relevant resources.
The Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems at the University of Wisconsin has a pair of CSA management papers available online (search for csa management).
The Robyn VanEn CSA Center offers a state-by-state list of CSA farms, books, brochures, videos, slide shows, and technical assistance.
The Biodynamic Community has been a part of CSA since the very beginning. Their journal often features CSA farms and the Website has information on CSA.
Just Food is a non-profit organization that works to develop a just and sustainable food system in the New York City region, and specifically promotes and organizes CSA projects through the CSA in NYC project.
The Community Farm is a quarterly newsletter for CSA farmers and farm members (and others interested in small farm issues and ideas). The Community Farm's Extra page has a full-text of Elizabeth Henderson's speech, "Building the Community in CSA: Another World is Possible," given at the 2004 CSA Conference.
Growing for Market is a monthly magazine for the market farmer, including frequent features related specifically to CSA.
References:
DeLind, Laura. 2003. Community Supported Agriculture 2002: The State of the Art in Michigan. Colorado: National Farmer's Union.
Groh, Traugher M. and Steven S.H. McFadden. 1990. Farms of Tomorrow: Community Supported Farms, Farm Supported Communities. Kimberton: Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association, Inc.
Groh, Traugher M. and Steven S.H. McFadden. 1998. Farms of Tomorrow Revisited: Community Supported Farms, Farm Supported Communities. Kimberton: Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association, Inc.
Henderson, Elizabeth with Robyn Van En. 1999. Sharing the Harvest: A Guide to Community Supported Agriculture. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Company.