What is CSA

What is a CSA?

CSA is often used as short hand for a subscription program in which the consumer pays up front to receive a set amount of food each week.  CSA-Community supported agriculture refers to much more than this.  Any program that connects consumers directly with producers of food can be considered community supported agriculture.  This can include cow shares, community gardens, farms owned by restaurants or intentional communities, produce for labor exhanges and many other programs.  A key element of successfull community support of agriculture is sharing the risk.  Weather and other factors make farming a very risky business.  In the classic CSA the consumer buys a share of the production of the farm.  If production is good the consumer gets a bounty of food.  If weather or other problems reduces production the consumer gets less.  The consumer may also help on the farm.  Most CSA’s in the Atlanta region operate on a variation of this theme.

This excerpt explains some of the philosophy of CSA.
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA):
An Annotated Bibliography and Resource Guide
by Suzanne DeMuth

Community shared (or supported) agriculture (CSA) is a new idea in farming, one that has been gaining momentum since its introduction to the United States from Europe in the mid-1980s. The CSA concept originated in the 1960s in Switzerland and Japan, where consumers interested in safe food and farmers seeking stable markets for their crops joined together in economic partnerships. Today, CSA farms in the U.S., known as CSAs, currently number more than 400. Most are located near urban centers in New England, the Mid-Atlantic states, and the Great Lakes region, with growing numbers in other areas, including the West Coast.

Most CSAs offer a diversity of vegetables, fruits, and herbs in season; some provide a full array of farm produce, including shares in eggs, meat, milk, baked goods, and even firewood. Some farms offer a single commodity, or team up with others so that members receive goods on a more nearly year-round basis.

“Since our existence is primarily dependent on farming, we cannot entrust this essential activity solely to the farming population — just 2% of Americans. As farming becomes more and more remote from the life of the average person, it becomes less and less able to provide us with clean, healthy, lifegiving food or a clean, healthy, lifegiving environment. A small minority of farmers, laden with debt and overburdened with responsibility, cannot possibly meet the needs of all the people. More and more people are coming to recognize this, and they are becoming ready to share agricultural responsibilities with the active farmers.”

-Trauger M. Groh and Steven S.H. McFadden, Farms of Tomorrow

* see www.nal.usda.gov for more information about CSA programs