Community supported agriculture (CSA) returns organic consumers to their roots by giving them fresh quality food while providing producers with reliable markets.
Consumers get a sense of connection with their food, the land, the seasons, their farmer and other members of the CSA farm.
Producers get a sense of connection with consumers, as well as money up front and the ability to focus on growing healthy food.
CSA has been gaining popularity in North America for a decade, combining two strong trends in agriculture: organic and local. A recent study in southwestern Ontario found that more than 20 percent of organic producers in that region are involved in CSA farms. In the United States, CSA farms are found in areas of dense population on both coasts.
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Members of such farms suggest the main reasons for joining include quality of produce, support for local farming, environmental concerns, concerns over food safety and community service, such as donations of excess product to food banks.
The underlying concept is that consumers buy into the production of their food.
At the beginning of the season, each member buys a share. This might be a single lump sum payment, or a commitment to a series of regular payments.
This allows the producer to buy seed and hire labour without the costs of borrowing.
Some CSA farms encourage members to volunteer labour as part of their commitment.
Consumers receive a share of the harvest for their investment, which usually takes the form of a food basket delivered weekly during the growing season. Generally, the basket includes vegetables, but some farms also offer dairy, eggs, meat and fruit.
The challenges of CSA include risk, limited variety and seasonality of produce. The members share the risk with the farmer.
In a good year, the harvest share can be substantial. In a poor year, crops may fail and others may be significantly reduced. In all years, food is seasonal and limited to what the farm can provide.
The availability of produce can be a challenge to consumers. Often the CSA farm introduces members to vegetables with which they are unfamiliar.
Certain vegetables may not be desirable to all members, or more may be produced than members want.
And of course, production is limited by climate, weather and season. Some vegetables will not be available from certain CSA farms and others will be available only for a short time.
In a U.S. study of CSA farms, members were more concerned about the potential of waste during overproduction than about seasonality or limited choice.
Overproduction may be sold at local farmers’ markets or donated to food banks or other charitable groups.
The goal of CSA is not to provide cheap food.
An American study indicated that only two percent of CSA farm members were concerned with the value of their shares.
Most participants felt that encouraging the production of cheap food would result either in food that was less nutritious or in production methods that damaged the environment.
One study found that the average cost of a CSA food basket is 50 to 70 percent of the cost of equivalent produce bought at the local store.
Equivalent local organic produce was not always available at the local store, making comparisons difficult and suggesting another advantage of the CSA arrangement.
Although the produce basket at a CSA farm may be good value for money in most years, none of the CSA farms had a crop failure during the study, so risk may not have been figured appropriately into the financial comparison.
There is a lot of concern about the distance between consumers and farmers, about the length of the chain that brings consumers and their food together and about the rural-urban divide.
Members of CSA farms are typically city dwellers who rate “support for local farming” as a major reason for membership.
They borrow from the Japanese “seikatsus,” an approach to farming that provides “food with the farmer’s face on it.”
This approach may be a step toward greater connection and thus wiser solutions in our food system.
Frick is the prairie co-ordinator for the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada located at the University of Saskatchewan. She can be reached at 306-966-4975, at brenda.frick@usask.ca, or www.organicagcentre.ca.
