Community Supported Agriculture
We are a growing social and
agricultural movement that connects the source of food (the farm and
farmer) to the destination of the food (the consumer, or eater). A
central concept in CSA is that farm members, as partners with the
farmer, share some of the risks of production. CSA can be viewed
variously as a strategy for saving small farms, a marketing tool, or
even a philosophical point of view.
Sometimes consumers,
concerned about their food, form a core group and start a farm, renting
or purchasing land and hiring a farmer or manager. More often a farmer
will designate all or a portion of the farm to a CSA project. While some
farmers are using CSA merely as an innovative marketing tool, more
often it includes a more significant purpose, reflecting the farmer's
values related to small farms, environmental concerns,sustainability,
the local community, and organic
production techniques.
In its most basic form the CSA farm
produces vegetables for a group of farm members or subscribers who pay
in advance for their share of the harvest. Typically the farm members
receive their share once a week, sometimes coming to the farm to pick up
their share; other farms deliver to a central point. The most common
products of a CSA are vegetables in a wide variety. But some CSAs offer
additional products, like honey, eggs, meat, firewood, bread...we even
know of one that offers shares of home made beer. Most, perhaps all, CSA
farms are producing their produce using organic methods, though many
are not certified because they often know and are trusted by their
members. Many are biodynamic.
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GOOD
FOR THE FARMER, THE CONSUMER, AND THE LAND
The farmer is relieved
of the burden of marketing produce at just the time when the energy
needed to grow the crops is greatest. CSA farmers concentrate on
farming, on what they do best.
Members of the farm receive both
concrete and subtle benefits. While spending hundreds of dollars in
advance for vegetables which are not even planted yet is difficult for
some (both financially and emotionally), membership is generally a
bargain in the long run. Each week during the harvest season members
receive an interesting variety of the freshest possible produce. Almost
all CSA farms are using organic farming techniques, so concerns over
toxic residues on the food are alleviated. Membership in a community
farm provides a link to the production of food impossible for the
supermarket or even the farm stand shopper to achieve. Members see their
veggies growing, watch them form and ripen, fret over difficult
weather, even get dirt under their fingernails.
The land is
treated with the respect it deserves as the base of the entire operation
and indeed as the base of human life. In all operations-pest
management, tillage, fertilization- the effect on soil is considered. We
at Five Springs Farm view the earth as a living being and the soil as
the basis of human life.
All CSAs are small within the context of modern agriculture and many are
small indeed. Many CSA farms are less than 10 acres of cultivation. Our
own, Five Springs Farm,
is only 1/2 acre of intensively managed raised beds. CSAs tend to be
energy efficient with plenty of handwork and little energy expended in
distribution (the average distance from food to plate outside of
community supported agriculture is 1300 miles!).
For More
Information
Perhaps the best
resource for beginning and prospective CSA farmers as well as those with
more experience is the book "Sharing the Harvest" by Elizabeth
Henderson. This book is widely available, published by Chelsea Green
Some
of the many Internet resources on CSA and related topics can be
researched from our Links page. |