I
have fond memories of growing up on a farm in Idaho. I loved playing
and working outdoors. Even now, when I work in the garden and watch my
seedlings sprout I can feel my blood pressure drop. I live in the city
now, but my heart always turns back to my peaceful, childhood memories
of the farm. I think many people
want to participate in the romantic lifestyle of farming. Community
Supported Agriculture programs provide us "city folk" with a way to do
this.
Community
supported agriculture allows individuals of a community to pledge
support or buy shares of a local farm. After becoming a shareholder you
will have rights to receive a portion of the output from that farm. Most
of the participating farms use organic, ecological or biodynamic
farming methods. As a shareholder you participate in the benefits of a
bumper crop or the disadvantages of a bad growing season. The output
usually consists of produce, flowers fruits, milk, eggs and they are
usually distributed on a weekly or monthly basis throughout the growing
season.
These
programs provide many benefits to the farmers. Their own personal risk
from bad weather or crop disease is reduced because the risk is spread
across all of the shareholders. The farmer also receives his working
capital in the beginning which is rare for farmers. They also generally
get better prices for their crops and there is less waste.
As
shareholders, our benefits include: fresh, organic produce weekly,
satisfaction from supporting your local farm, and the peace of mind that
comes from helping our environment by buying locally and reducing our
carbon footprint.
The following website will give you a good list of local CSA's that you can support http://www.localharvest.org
~Michael Johnson~
1 comment:
We love our CSA! And our farm also runs a school fundraiser CSA, which means everybody wins! And we don't have to buy shares up front. Just a weekly or biweekly box.
It.Is.Awesome.
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