Millennial Farmer: CSAs offer more than fresh food

It goes like this: We sow seeds, we prepare soil, we plant, we water, we cultivate, and the plants grow. Finally, we harvest. First it will be lettuce, salad turnips, radishes, spinach, scallions, peas, pac choi, and then onto beets, cilantro, kale, cabbage, summer squash and zucchini, carrots, beans, and then tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, onions, basil, new potatoes, and the list goes on.

Once the sun and heat take hold, we are going full speed into food, and harvest days turn into social evenings as we set out that food in baskets and bins for our CSA members, who come for their share each week throughout the summer.

This is one of the things we love about Community Supported Agriculture (CSA): the relationships we get to build with our customers week after week, season after season. It’s different than selling at a farmers market, which we did for years when we worked on others’ farms. Though I did see many returning customers at the markets over the years, the bustle of markets doesn’t leave much space for extended conversations. CSA, on the other hand, creates a deeper relationship from the get go. When customers sign up in the spring and pay for their summer’s worth of vegetables and herbs, we have an immediate commitment to one another.

Paying for a share in the late winter and early spring, when production costs are high but the harvest is still months away is one way the community supports agriculture in the CSA model. For many farmers this early cash flow is important to get the season going. The recognition of the value that local farms bring to a community is another way that communities support agriculture.

Looking into CSA history will show that CSAs actually began from the community. According to the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT), “The first examples of CSA concurrently emerged in Japan and Europe in the 1960s, driven by consumers who wanted to insure the quality of their food and farm communities. These consumers purchased shares in their local farms to help stabilize the farmers’ incomes and support sustainable growing practices.”

Similarly, as stated by ATTRA, The National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service, “The original idea of CSA was to re-establish a sense of connection to the land for urban dwellers and to foster a strong sense of community and cooperation with a decided social justice goal to provide food security for disadvantaged groups.” Indeed, the CSA model makes food more affordable by offering a discount on retail market prices for shareholders. Many CSAs go beyond the discount and raise money to further subsidize shares, working with organizations like NOFA-VT and their Farm Share Program.

As I researched the history of CSA, I was struck by its roots in social justice. Inspired by our time working at a nonprofit educational farm in Ester, Alaska, my husband and I made it the mission of our farm to make local food more accessible to low-income Vermonters. We are one of the many farms who partner with NOFA-VT’s Farm Share Program and raise money through on-farm events in order to offer shares at half price to those who otherwise couldn’t afford it.

The way I see it, if we are asking for support from the community, we want to be accessible to the entire community. Through cost-share programs, educational gardening workshops, and on-farm events, CSA farms across Vermont are helping to grow community by revitalizing local food systems and offering eaters a closer relationship with their food and the land. Thanks to the transparent nature of CSA, eaters can see the sustainable practices employed by small farmers, and many CSA farms rely on customer feedback to tailor their shares to the community they serve.

According to NOFA-VT, there are 65 CSA farms in the state; with June just around the corner, all those farms are getting ready for their first share delivery of the season. You can find a listing of CSAs, plus information on the Farm Share Program that helps subsidize shares, at nofavt.org. Beyond the fresh, local food, perhaps the best thing about CSA is that the eaters and the farmers are both making a difference, building healthy and resilient communities together.

Katie Spring is a farmer and writer in Worcester where she and her husband run Good Heart Farmstead, a CSA farm with a mission to increase accessibility to local food for low-income Vermonters. Follow her blog at katiespring.com, and learn more about the farm at goodheartfarmstead.com.