Market Farming

[Leigh Hauter <lh AT pressroom.com>]

I've been farming CSA for a decade now and if there is one thing 
about the definition of a CSA is that the definition hasn't really 
been set in stone.  I have my definition for my CSA and my philosophy 
on my webpage, however there are over a dozen CSA's in our area and 
each one of us has his or her definition and their philosophy 
(including Allan).   I was in Australia last fall and talked to a 
couple of farmers doing 'CSA'  over there and their definitions and 
philosophies were pretty much Australian (like the language) and only 
seemed to be related to 'American'.

So, in short, if you grow vegetables and you want to have members for 
the whole season (or less if your Australian - since they have this 
12 month thing) and you want to get paid up front  (or not- like some 
CSA's) and you want to give them a share of your harvest (or not as a 
number of farmers that are  market farmers first), and if you want to 
grow your vegetables  certified organically,  organic practices, or 
with various degrees of chems and you can find a customer base.. 
Well I guess you are a CSA.

I think what Allan was saying is that most of the customer base for 
CSA's is looking for chem free, locally grown vegetables, where they 
know the farmer, where they can visit the farm and maybe work some at 
the farm.  At least that's my customer base.

> I was looking for information about Community Supported Agriculture "CSA" in
> Texas.  It seemed like everything revolved around organic farming.  Is this
> true?  Is Community Supported Agriculture just for organic farmers, or can
> others participate too?
>
> Thanks
> Mark (West Texas Zone 7b)
>
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