Why CSA

• History of CSA
• On the Farm
• In the City
• CSA in New York City
• More Information

History of CSA

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) began initially in rural communities: farmers would arrange with their neighbors or people who lived nearby to sell them a portion of their crops for the whole season in exchange for the money up front. This enabled farmers to cover the initial start up costs of a season, which can be very high, as well as guarantee a market for their produce throughout the season. More recently, CSA has been developed as an arrangement between rural farmers and city folk who otherwise have very little access to fresh produce. Not all CSAs are organic, but many are, reflecting the members' commitment economic success of their particular farm, as well as to broader issues of sustainable agriculture, farmland preservation and small-farm preservation.

As Barbara Kingsolver commented in her book Small Wonder, "Americans have a taste for food that's been seeded, fertilized, harvested, processed, and packaged in grossly energy-expensive ways and then shipped, often refrigerated, for so many miles it might as well be green cheese from the moon." A CSA is an opportunity to challenge all of this - to buy and eat food that's locally-produced, minimally-packaged, and is grown in ways that support the health of the planet.

For a list of CSA-related websites, click here.

On The Farm

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CSAs benefit the farmer in several ways:

Financially The beginning of a season can get to be expensive: farmers need to buy seed, pay laborers, fix equipment-all before they have grown anything they can sell! By receiving member's payments for the entire season up front, farmers can avoid taking out huge loans, which can be risky and stressful.

Demand Consumer demand can be capricious and hard to estimate. Farmers who have pre-sold shares of their crops to their CSA members don't have to worry that, should zucchini suddenly fall from the list of "in" vegetables one season, their fields of squash won't go to waste, since CSA members agree to take whatever the farmer has grown.

Risk The same holds true for cases of bad weather or blight: members of the CSA agree to share the risk that certain crops may be ruined. Perhaps heavy rains will flood spinach crops, or hot weather will cause the broccoli to go to flower before it can be sold. These unforeseen events won't directly translate to loss of capital for the farmer, since members agree to take whatever the farm produces.

Community CSAs provide the opportunity for city consumers and rural food producers to get to know each other, and teach each other about their concerns. Just as farmers can respond to requests from their members in terms of crop preferences, CSA members can become important spokespeople on issues that are important to the farmers.

In The City

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The urban members of a CSA benefit just as much as the farmer does.

Quality The produce they receive every week is always fresh-often picked the same morning, a luxury hard to come by in conventional food systems where food is picked un-ripe and spends many days or weeks in transport before it is eaten. Farmers often grow many varieties of food that aren't readily available, providing exciting new food experiences! In addition, since the farmers are usually working on a small scale, their attention to detail and commitment to produce quality is unparalleled.

Cost Buying organic food, especially from specialty organic markets, can be expensive. The price of CSA membership is competitive with and sometimes cheaper than organic food prices at local grocery stores. In addition, CSAs often provide reduced-price shares for low-income people in their community.

Community The CSA distribution site can become an important social gathering place. Week after week, members get to know each other, share food ideas, and chat about their lives-exchanges that are less likely to occur in regular supermarkets. The CSA also organizes field trips and activities that serve as further anchors for positive community building.

Education Through active participation in a CSA, members are exposed first-hand to issues that affect agriculture in general, and their produce in particular. In addition, the CSA will often organize lectures and events to further educate its members on topics related to organic food, local agriculture, etc.

CSAs in New York City

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New York City is perhaps the most urban of cities in the country, yet it is encircled by rich agricultural lands in New Jersey, Connecticut and even Long Island. Small farmers in the region benefit immensely from the Greenmarket program, which provides them with a market for their produce, but still face the difficulty of competing with the large-scale commercial agriculture network that predominates in most of the country.

Since 1994, regional farmers have connected with community groups in New York City in CSA arrangements enabled by the organization Just Food. Just Food helped to setup over thirty CSAs in the City, providing start-up information, technical assistance and ongoing workshops for CSA members and volunteers. Hazon CSA is one of five new CSAs established in conjunction with Just Food this year. For more information about Just Food, or if you live in New York and would like to find a CSA near you, click here.

More Information

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For more information about CSA in the United States, take a look at some of these excellent sites:

Added Value - A non-profit that promotes the sustainable development of Red Hook, Brooklyn by nurturing a new generation of young leaders.

Alternative Farming Systems Information Center - an extensive site about organic farming and community supported agriculture maintained by the Cooperative State Research Education and Extension Service and the National Agricultural Library of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Includes a state by state registry of CSAs.

The Food Project - a Boston based organization that has links to Boston-area CSAs

Just Food - a non-profit that helps set up CSAs in NYC

Land Stewardship Project - a great CSA farm directory in the Midwest

Northeast Organic Farming Organization - a Northeast farming association with chapters in New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Vermont, Rhode Island and Connecticult