Building Community To Support Agriculture

By Brenda Frick, Ph.D., P.Ag.

Community supported agriculture (CSA) brings organic consumers back to their roots. It gives consumers fresh quality food and producers reliable markets. Consumers get a sense of connection with their food, with the land, with the seasons, as well as community with ‘their’ farmer and the 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 today, organic and local. A recent study in southwestern Ontario found that over 20% or organic producers there are involved in CSA farms. In the USA, CSA farms are found in areas of dense population on both coasts.

Members of CSA 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 of a CSA is that consumers literally 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. This usually takes the form of a food basket delivered weekly during the growing season. Generally the basket includes vegetables, but some CSA 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, some 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 simply not be available through a given CSA farm, and others will only be available for a short time. In a study of CSA farms in the USA, members were more concerned about the potential of waste during over production than about seasonality or limited choice. Over production may be sold at local farmer’s markets, or donated to food banks or other charitable groups.

Does CSA provide cheap food? That is not the goal of CSA. An American study indicated that very few of the CSA farm members (2%) were concerned with the value of their shares. Most CSA participants felt that encouraging the production of cheap food would result either in food that was less nutritious or in production methods that were damaging for the environment.

One study found that the average cost of a CSA food basket is 50 to 70% 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 basket of produce 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.

Is Consumer Supported Agriculture the new wave in organic? If so, it could be a very positive sign. Many are concerned about the distance between consumers and farmers, about the length of the chain that brings us our food, 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.

Brenda Frick, Ph.D., P.Ag., is the Senior Research and Extension Associate for Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada at the University of Saskatchewan. She welcomes your comments at 306-966-4975 or via email at organic@usask.ca.

References

Jeff Sharp, Eric Imerman and Greg Peters. 2002. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA): Building Community Among Farmers and Non-Farmers Journal of Extension. June 2002. Vol 40 (3) accessed at http://www.joe.org/joe/2002june/a3.html

Cynthia Abbott Cone and Ann Kakaliouras. 1995. Community Supported Agriculture: Building Moral Community or an Alternative Consumer Choice. Culture & Agriculture. Spring/Summer 1995. pp 28-31

Jack P. Cooley, Daniel A. Lass. 1998. Consumer Benefits from Community Supported Agriculture Membership. Review of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Spring - Summer, 1998), pp. 227-237

Sumner, J. 2005. Organic farmers and rural development. A research report on the links between organic farmers and community sustainability in southwestern Ontario. OISE, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON.

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Posted January 2008