What is Community Supported Agriculture?
Discover > Farm to Table Eating in Texas > What is Community Supported Agriculture?
The COVID pandemic brought unprecedented challenges to the food industry as it did to other businesses. It was heartbreaking to hear of countless pounds of produce rotting in farms and storage, while supermarket shelves went bare due to a lack of human resources. Modern-day food supply chains are delicate networks that have become increasingly industrialized and easily affected by global oil prices, stock markets, and political disturbances. How do you distance yourself from this uncertainty and pave your way towards a dependable food source? CSA is the answer.
Grow local, eat local – that’s CSA in a nutshell. Community Shared Agriculture, or CSA, is a subscription-based farming model that holds fairness and transparency as its core principles. In its traditional form, it involves a customer, or a member, buying a share of a farm’s produce up-front, securing the farmer’s finances for that season. The farmer uses this income to purchase seeds, manage their farm, and grow their produce. The customer then receives a regular delivery of fresh and seasonal produce from the farm. While the farmer enjoys guaranteed customers for their yield, customers receive high-quality, locally-grown fruits and vegetables that come directly from the farm and haven’t sat in cold storage or been artificially ripened.
With no big-box supermarkets in the picture, the farmer is free of any pressure to produce mass amounts of yield. Instead, farmers in a CSA model grow small batches of produce, suitable to the region and season. The yield is then distributed among members who usually live in close proximity to the farm. This sustainable method of farming greatly reduces the environmental impact on agriculture and establishes a symbiotic relationship of respect between the farmer, the consumer, and nature.
The Origins of Community Supported Agriculture
CSA farms originated in Europe and Japan in the 1960s. A Swiss farmer, Jan Vander Tuin, brought the CSA model from Europe to the United States. New Hampshire’s Temple-Wilton Farm and Indian Line Farm in Massachusetts were among the first CSA farms to be established in America in 1986. Since then, communities have customized the model to suit their needs. Although the idea has made its way around the world under different terminologies, the concept of prioritizing the financial security of farmers, healthy soils, and growing seasonal food for community members has remained the same. Today, there are reportedly over 7,000 recognized CSA farms operating in the country.
Types of Community Supported Agriculture Models:
Community Supported Agriculture farms operate in several different ways. While some only serve a handful of families, others deliver food to over a thousand households. Some farms offer you the chance to offset your fee by working on the farm, while others have a set-dollar fee structure. Some of the most popular types of CSA partnerships include:
Producer-initiated: Most CSAs are initiated by farmers who want to pursue alternative marketing and develop a closer relationship with their consumers
Member-initiated: The impetus comes from a group of consumers who collaborate with a local farm to produce food
Multiple-producer: A group of farmers come together and provide a wide variety of items for customers
Organization-initiated: Businesses, churches and schools band together to create a community of consumers to form a CSA
What’s in a CSA box?
CSA boxes usually vary depending on the location, season, and farm. If you’re someone who enjoys being surprised with a veggie you’ve never seen before, then opt for a multiple-producer CSA farm. Otherwise, most CSA boxes come packed with produce that’s been picked right off the vine and delivered to you. Think flavorful cherry tomatoes, flowering spring greens, and fruits with just the right amount of sweetness.
What you get depends on what the farmer has grown that season, so you may end up with some unfamiliar goods in the box as well. This gives you a chance to flex those creative muscles and come up with interesting recipes! Some CSAs also offer grains, meat, cheese, eggs, or even flowers with their produce. Depending on who you work with, you may get the chance to choose what you receive in your CSA box to a certain degree. Most farmers are open to feedback since the whole operation is based on cultivating a closer, more fulfilling relationship with the consumer.
Subscribing to a CSA farm is not just an effective way of reducing your carbon footprint and supporting local agriculture, but also ensuring your diet is healthy and centered around nutritious produce. Do you subscribe to a Community Supported Agriculture farm? Let us know about your experience in the comments!
Looking for the best farm-to-table restaurant across Texas? Click here.
