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!

   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.
   

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?"

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'.

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.

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.