Community-supported agriculture

Community supported agriculture (CSA), or subscription farming, is a direct marketing method started by organic farmers in the USA about a decade ago. Consumers subscribe to the harvest of a CSA farmer for the entire forthcoming season, and pay for their produce in advance. Consumers and farmers share the production and harvest risk of the farmer, and the bonus. There are variations to this scheme, which is a useful method of direct marketing. 

Legarre, Paola, E. Nakata, and G. Peer. 2001. Pricing strategy analysis Farm and community supported agriculture. M.B.A. project paper. Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara, California. 

Stanford, Lois. 2.006. The Role of Ideology in New Mexico s CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Organizations Conflicting Visions between Growers and Members. In Past Eood/Slow Pood The Cultural Economy of the Global Pood System, edited by Richard Wilk, 181-200. Lanham, MD Altamira Press. 

Roadside stands, farmers markets, and community supported agriculture farms (CSAs) constitute the direct marketing end of the organic industry. There are approximately 1,000 CSAs across the United States. In CSAs, clients support a farm s production by purchasing a share, which can range from 200 to 400/season. For each share, clients receive an average of 15 pounds of produce per week. For more information on CSAs, see the Iowa State University Extension publication on Iowa CSA Farms (PM 1693). 

It is on the farm, at the farmer s market, and in the community supported agriculture co-operatives (like those in which Henry Brockman, Joel Salatin, and thousands of other farmers and millions of customers participate) where this self-sponsored regulation is most effective. 

Among the motivations of Asian producers, the interest for export market, particularly the need of overcoming SPS non-tariff barriers is certainly playing a relevant role. However, the development of domestic markets is starting up, and interesting experiences have been made involving the development of short distribution ehains, community supported agriculture, and local development initiatives aimed at environment conservation and restoration. 

Food co-ops, farmers markets, and community supported agriculture could... 

The fastest-growing US outlet for organic farms in recent years has been the CSA — Community Supported Agriculture. Under this European-inspired system families subscribe to purchase a farm s organically grown products and each week receive a seasonal variety, often delivered, farm-fresh, directly to their homes. Sometimes these families are involved in the activities on the farm, learning about the practices and conditions under which their food is grown. 

More food is going straight from the farm to the fork. From 1997 to 2007, the amount of food sold by farmers direcdy to consumers more than doubled, helped by farmers markets and community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs. 

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