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Subject: Market Farming
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- From: KAKerby AT aol.com
- To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
- Subject: [Market-farming] what's a CSA? - 2nd try
- Date: Thu, 3 May 2012 23:59:48 -0400 (EDT)
Good evening everyone. One of the emails I tried to send earlier
today, which didn't post, a lot of you will have gotten already on the
CSAFarmers list. But for those of you who aren't on that particular list,
I wanted to share it here too.
There was a conversation on that list a few weeks ago, about coming up with
a definition of "CSA" that we can share with customers. Toward that
end, a number of people posted their definition of a CSA, and I offered to
compile the definitions into something that could be put into any given farm's
marketing material. The following text is the result of that combined
effort.
I also came up with some working definitions for other food distribution
methods, and how they differ from each other. I'll have to send the
language for the other distribution methods separately. I'll also post the
whole thing as a PDF doc to our farm website, and make it available for
download. I hope and encourage folks to continue to refine the
definitions.
Kathryn Kerby
frogchorusfarm.com
Snohomish, WA
Ruminations - essays on the farming life at
frogchorusfarm.com/weblog.html
What is a CSA? Community Supported
Agriculture is a term which is used by farmers and consumers both, to describe
an alternative to the current conventional practice of buying and selling via
brokers and other middle-men. The
term comes from an approach to marketing where the farmer forges a direct
relationship with a group of local customers, such that the community has
immediate access to food and the farmer has immediate access to customers. While CSAs can vary on some details,
they usually feature most if not all of the following
criteria: 1)
a one-on-one relationship
between farmer and consumer, where both parties get to know each other, and each
other’s concerns and goals for food production, quality and access. 2)
A subscription arrangement of
some kind, such that the consumer knows in advance what variety and amount of
products he or she will receive, and the farmer knows in advance what to grow,
and how much of it, throughout the year. 3)
A payment arrangement such
that the consumer either pays in advance at a discount, or agrees to pay a
certain amount per week. These
rates are often cheaper than the consumer would pay for the same quality of
product at a grocery store or farmers market, and both approaches give the
farmer some guarantee of weekly and/or seasonal
income. 4)
An opportunity or expectation
for the consumer to come to the farm to see first-hand how things are grown and
raised. These visits might be to
pick up weekly boxes of produce, or for regular work parties, or for member days
to celebrate events such as planting and
harvesting. 5)
A formal or informal
guarantee that the products will be the freshest possible. Most CSAs work on a weekly delivery or
pickup schedule, and as a result most of the produce sold will have been
harvested within a few days of that schedule. This does not apply to all products,
because some products (such as honey, cheeses, and meats) are either harvested
infrequently throughout the year, or need to age prior to sale, or have longer
shelf-lives which allow for sales distributed throughout the
year. 6)
Many CSA farms are managed in
sustainable, natural, and/or organic ways.
The personal relationships forged between CSA growers and buyers works to
encourage all parties to discuss concerns, goals and priorities, for various
food safety issues. Some CSAs will
actively include consumers in the farm’s day to day decision-making
process. ----------------------- |
-
[Market-farming] what's a CSA? - 2nd try,
KAKerby, 05/03/2012
- Re: [Market-farming] what's a CSA? - 2nd try, Lucy Owsley, 05/04/2012
- <Possible follow-up(s)>
- Re: [Market-farming] what's a CSA? - 2nd try, KAKerby, 05/04/2012
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