An alternative, locally-based economic model of agriculture and food distribution is born. Can this form of direct marketing of agricultural products play a predominant role in a more sustainable, locally based food system?
By Antonio Di Cintio
“In 1965, in Japan, a group of women approached a local farm family with an idea to address these issues and provide their families with fresh fruits and vegetables. The farmers agreed to provide produce if multiple families made a commitment to support the farm. A contract was drawn and the “teikei” concept was born, which translated literally means partnership, but philosophically means “food with the farmer’s face on it” ”
(Robyn Van En, Eating food for your community, 1995).
Would you love to know the exact provenience of vegetables you buy? Would you love to know exactly who produced it and which fertilisers he used? If the answer is positive, you are likely to become a future supporter of community-supported agriculture.
The term community-supported agriculture (CSA) refers to a particular network or association of individuals committed to support one or more local farms, with growers and consumers sharing both risks and benefits of food production.
The process is straightforward: at the beginning of the growing season, CSA members pay for a share of the anticipated harvest; once harvesting begins, they receive weekly shares of vegetables, fruit, cut flowers, honey, eggs, dairy products or meat.
CSAs are different from usual markets where customers buy a certain product at a certain price. In here, members purchase only what the farm is able to successfully grow and harvest: the singular aspect is, therefore, that for the first time consumers and farmers share some of the growing risk.
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If, for instance, the pumpkin crop is not plentiful, members will face the burden of the crop failure by receiving fewer or lower quality, pumpkins from that harvest. This is the so-called shared risk and reward agreement: consumers receive what the farmers grow even with the vagaries of seasonal growing. The result is a feeling of “we’re in this together”.
This new way of interpreting the market allows the producer to reduce the amount of time and labour, focusing on quality rather than on economic laws, and, on the other hand, represents a sensible financial benefit for consumers, that don’t have to pay for any added value of intermediate processes.
Community-supported agriculture began in the early 1960s in Germany, Switzerland and Japan thanks to an increased consciousness about environmental issues. Trying to ensure food safety and, meanwhile, defending the agricultural land from a massive urbanisation were two priorities.
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If results today are so positive in terms of popularity, employment opportunities and consciousness, a lot is given to Robyn Van En, an organic farmer that helped to create more than 200 CSA farms across the United States, proselytizing fresh, local, organic produce. Since 1985, she also travelled to South America, Africa, New Zealand, Canada and Russia to promote alternative ways of thinking agricultural market, leading to more than 1,200 active CSAs worldwide. Her contributions were later recognized when the Robyn Van En Centre for CSA Resources was founded in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
- CSA members are supporting a regional food system, securing the agricultural integrity of their region, and participating in a community-building experience by getting to know their neighbors and who grows their food (Robyn Van En, Eating food for your community, 1995).
This kind of farming operates with a much greater degree of involvement of consumers and other stakeholders than usual — resulting in a stronger consumer-producer relationship. Indeed, it’s not rare that CSA members are actively involved in the growing and distribution process through shared newsletters and recipes, farm visits, farm work-days, advance purchases of shares and picking up their shares of produce. It´s not uncommon, furthermore, that farmers include recipes and news in each box in which many information related to the farm are announced: the positive outcome is that, after a certain period of time, consumers get to know who is producing their food and what production methods are used.
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How this movement could have become so popular? Reasons for CSAs’ diffusion are to be found in people´s increasing concern for a healthy environment, in their desire of eating organic vegetables in season and in supporting local food sources, meanwhile becoming aware of the issues related to pesticide use.
Furthermore, the close proximity of the farm to the members imply that the produce does not have to be shipped long distances, improving both its freshness and reducing CO2 emissions caused by transportation. Many CSA farmers also produce their food without the use of pesticides or inorganic fertilizers, so they are as natural as possible, limiting, once more, their impact on the environment.
Success of CSAs is spreading like wild fire: back in 1990, there were about 60 in the United States. Nevertheless, nowadays, there are around 1700. The framework was so happy that many consumers have even organized their own CSA projects and have gone as far as leasing land and hiring farmers. As further proof of this success, some CSAs have also evolved into social enterprises employing a number of local staff and educating the local community about organic and ecologically responsible farming.
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With access to a farm, many are dazzled by the bounty and wonders of nature. I love to see grown people awed by the delicate beauty of a carrot seedling, once said Robyn Van En.
Maybe now we have the chance to be dazzled as well by the bounty and wonders of nature. Maybe we have the chance, once for all, to reduce the size of our food markets, to protect our environment and to eat high quality food. We have the chance to bequeath these values to future generations, and we should start from the next time we will choose a head of lettuce.
