On community-supported agriculture

20 Aug 2007

Got questions about the environment? Ask Umbra.

Umbra,

Please illuminate CSAs for us, how they work, and how your readers can join one. Thanks! (And by the way, that photo of a peach in your recent column is an apricot.)

Bobbe
Santa Fe, N.M.

Dearest Bobbe,

Alas for stone-fruit misidentification. Hopefully corrected by the time this question hits the screen, but still. A fruit ignorance that community-supported agriculture might solve, if one lived where apricots and peaches grew.

Learn to share.

Courtesy of MACSAC

CSA is a way to get the freshest food, grown right near where you live or work, and to support small-scale farmers. In its traditional forms, CSA is a seasonal marriage in which eaters join with growers in the risks and benefits of farming.

There are a variety of ways to structure a CSA farm. The basics are: a farmer advertises for consumers to purchase a share of the season's harvest and become members. Members pay a lump sum at the start of the season for weekly boxes of mixed produce, which they pick up on the farm or at a drop spot. The farmer benefits by having operating capital to start the season, the members benefit from getting the freshest possible produce, usually picked the same day. The box is roughly the same size per week, often enough for a family of four, or two vegetarian adults, and a season might cost $300 to $700. There are both summer and winter CSAs.

Often members participate in non-financial ways as well, perhaps by working on the farm for part of their membership (this is how one might learn to identify an apricot in situ), or harvesting their own strawberries, or picking up all the shares at the farm and delivering them to an in-town drop spot. Members share in bumper crops and in crop failure (sickness and health), visit the farm for parties, and puzzle over unusual vegetables. Permutations include CSA for meat, eggs, flowers, and other crops; winter memberships; eaters who band together and seek out a farmer instead of vice versa; and sliding-scale memberships. Read an excellent longer, detailed description of the history and social implications at the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service site.

Ask Umbra continues below

ADVERTISING POLICY

Sometimes CSA is conflated with produce delivery services, but its cooperative aspects distinguish it from a simple goods-for-pay system. The point is to make a commitment to a local farm and a difference within the larger economic and social trends. It is community-supported agriculture, and there are many amazing stories about what a community will do to support a farmer, such as create a nonprofit organization and buy the farmland to save it from development so "their" farmer can keep on farming. Oh, it brings tears to my eyes.

I think CSA works for folks who cook at home, like vegetables, aren't picky eaters, and get jazzed about involvement in keeping small farms afloat. If you think that is you, dearest reader, by all means look into it. You can look now, especially if fall and winter vegetables exist in your area, or next spring -- we'll remind you.

If you regularly go to a farmers' market, ask there which farms also do a CSA, and pick up their brochures. If you're very lucky, an organization in your area compiles a guide. Failing that, try the Robyn Van En Center, Local Harvest, New Farm, or the Eat Well Guide. Try them all and marvel at the hidden world around you.

Supportively,
Umbra

Yours is to wonder why, hers is to answer (or try). Please send Umbra any nagging question pertaining to the environment -- but first check out her FAQs!

The claims made in this column may not reflect the views of this magazine. Neither the magazine nor the author guarantees that any advice contained in this column is wise or safe. Please use this column at your own risk.

Umbra Fisk is Grist Research Associate II, Hardcover and Periodicals Unit, floors 2B-4B.

Comments: (9 comments)

You are not logged in. Thus, you cannot post a comment. If you have a Gristmill account, log in below. If you don't have a Gristmill account, well, by all means go make one! Meet you back here in five.

Yay for CSAs!

Thanks, Umbra, for covering this! My husband and I joined a CSA for the first time this year and we love it. Another great reason for joining one is if you want to experiment with veggies that you wouldn't normally purchase. (Like, Sunchokes. Those were new to me this year. Great in salads!) You generally have an idea of what is coming, but there are always surprises. It's fun!

by bahairus at 2:04 PM on 20 Aug 2007

Another CSA permutation

In Lexington, MA there is a CSA connected with a local, 3-generation family farm where produce is not made available in boxes. What you get when you buy in for the season is coupons called "Busa Bucks"...the family is named Busa... and you can get your produce either at their farmstand or at any of the 3 farmers' markets where they participate, just like a cash shopper. This suits people who have smaller households and don't want a carton-full, or who find it hard to schedule their lives around a pick-up day.
I think it's different when a group of eaters makes a deal with a farmer who has an on-going commercial enterprise, rather than when a group comes together to grow their own food, or signs onto the latter kind of group. We tried pick-up-your-produce for the first 2 years but it interrupted the functioning of the farm. This way is working better, although we members don't have the face-to-face contact we had before, which did make it nicer.

by Mary Gilbert at 2:40 PM on 21 Aug 2007

Great article

It's great to see increasing interest in CSA's and farmer's markets. Thanks for spreading the good word, Umbra! I hope you'll check out my webpage at http://www.organic-nature-news.com/organic-fruits-and-veg ... which includes other organic food resources.

by natureguru at 6:03 PM on 21 Aug 2007

Busa Bucks...

I'm glad someone else mentioned Busa Bucks. I like the fact that you can spend the Busa Bucks on only the vegetables you want to buy rather than getting vegetables that mght not be what you're looking for or need that week. It gives the purchaser much more flexibility. As one of the people who works at Busa Farms said to me "If you are having guests and need 12 ears of corn, why should you be getting three bunches of kale?"

by Roz Cummins at 8:11 PM on 21 Aug 2007

Farmer's markets

Shopping at farmer's markets and eating "organic" are fine for those that participate but do not provide much of a benefit for the environment or the public at large.

By their very nature, such food sources can provide only a miniscule portion of the food that the public consumes, particularly in densely populated areas. Also,farmer's market food is only available at limited times of the year.

Therefore to present such food sources as a solution for anything is a hoax.

In addition, as one with a chemical education; I wonder if foods that are not "organic", are instead 'inorganic'.

by DrSid at 5:20 AM on 22 Aug 2007

hooray for CSA's

I love getting something new every week. And even in Vermont we have a winter CSA that provides root veggies and even some greens throughout most of the winter.

What I also like about CSA's is they teach about eating seasonally.

I won't feed the troll but DrSid you should really learn more about what organic is and how people actually used to get their food before monoculture farming took over.

by latenac at 11:53 AM on 22 Aug 2007

DrSid needs to study harder

DrSid, you must not have been reading Grist very long, or you would've seen the article pointing out a recent study saying that organic yields equal or exceed conventional yields:
http://www.grist.org/news/daily/2007/07/12/4/index.html

You'll need to explain to me why "their very nature" makes them unable to provide more than a miniscule portion of food the public consumes. The farmer's market in my town (which goes all year-round, by the way) is extremely well-attended, and appears to be feeding quite a few of the people in town.

Best,
Dave

by dhwert at 12:14 PM on 23 Aug 2007

Watch out, though...

We were all jazzed to join a CSA and shelled out ~$350 for a CSA near Austin. We got two and a half deliveries before the farmer had a health/nervous breakdown. We got a letter of apology from him describing his recent diagnosis of depression and a promise to make it up in the future. That was about a year ago, and we haven't heard from him since. I feel really bad for him, bad for our money that we gave him (we aren't exactly rolling in it right now), and feel that our experience really highlights the risks that small farmers take. He actually had to drive a school bus for extra money and pretty much lived month to month with triple digits in the bank only. I wish it could have worked out for him.
This is all to say that one should do some research to find out how well organized the CSA is and how well the farmer communicates. Communication is vital since I think everyone involved wants to see it work would help out if given a chance.
Just my 2c.

by timdiller at 11:23 AM on 24 Aug 2007

Sorry to Hear That, timdiller

timdiller said:
We were all jazzed to join a CSA and shelled out ~$350 for a CSA near Austin. We got two and a half deliveries before the farmer had a health/nervous breakdown.

I wouldn't let that discourage you, though. You're essentially investors in his farm, and you happened upon the one that went bust. If you believe in the concept, the best thing to do is to get back up and try again. Hopefully he'll pay you back, but maybe not. As you said, though, this really shows how tight things are for American farmers; they either sell out to the agri-giants and barely get by, or they go it alone and possibly don't get by at all.

But there are success stories, like Full Circle Farm up here in the Northwest:
http://www.fullcirclefarm.com .
They've expanded from three acres in 1996 to over 200 acres today by selling naturally-grown produce* to local restaurants and CSA members.

-- A.
* I don't like the term "organic" either. All plants are organic; that's just how life works on this planet.

Taking accounting to the extreme since 2004.

by akbeancounter at 5:06 PM on 27 Aug 2007
[ Parent ]

The comments of Grist users reflect the opinions of those individuals only, and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of Grist, its staff, its board members, their psychotherapists, or their aestheticians. Got it?

Crops and Neighbors

On community-supported agriculture