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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

Gene forwards:

> In a community farm, members buy shares - $690 for a family, or $355 for an 
> individual at Quail Hill - to pay for seeds, fertilizer and supplies. 
> 

Very good article, and thanks.  But it brings up something I don't 
understand, or maybe just don't like, about CSA's.  If I understand this 
article, Mr. 
Chaskey and five other people are paid a salary from a trust fund which also 
covers capital expenses:

"Its capital expenses are paid by the Peconic Land Trust, which also pays the 
salaries of Mr. Chaskey, a field manager and four summer apprentices."

The rest of the farm labor is supplied by members.  So the money collected 
from the sale of shares goes only to pay for seed, fertilizer, and other such 
supplies.  $140,000??   Being out of the broader economic world of the modern 
Babylon, I also do a little truck farming on a microscopic scale compared to 
Mr. 
Chaskey so I am familiar with how much it costs to buy seeds, arrange for 
organic fertilizer, and such to grow organic vegetables for several families 
for 
a season.  Nobody's being paid out of a land trust here either.  It doesn't 
cost a tiny fraction of the $690 Quail Hill is getting.

I dunno, can't always just put my finger on it, but there's always something 
about CSA's that smacks of not being on the up and up.

James