The fun part of gardening and farming is the growing of the product. Usually, the most dreaded aspect of the project is marketing. Yet, it is marketing that is the key to the success.
A relatively new method of marketing farm products is Community Supported Agriculture or Consumer Subscription Agriculture (CSA). CSAs started in Japan with a group of housewives who were dissatisfied with the nutritional quality of food produced with modern agricultural techniques. They banded together and contracted with a local farmer to produce food for them using traditional methods of agriculture. This caught on with others in Japan, then Switzerland and elsewhere in Europe.
In the early to mid 1980s, CSAs arrived in America with a slightly different twist. In the US, the CSAs were mainly initiated by growers instead of consumers. Growers were looking for a way to provide a steady cash flow especially in the early spring when expenses are high and income low. By selling shares in the upcoming crops, they could get cash to buy seeds, equipment, labor, etc. to produce the crop.
On the other hand, the consumer would get a chance to buy shares in locally grown food from people who they could come to know and trust. The customer gets periodic produce in the form of whatever crops are being harvested at that time of the season. The food tends to be fresher and tastier than what can be bought in the supermarket.
Several iterations exist of the CSA concept. They go all the way from a single farmer selling shares of his crop to a few local families for pick up at the farm to several farmers selling shares of many different crops to dozens or even hundreds of families to be delivered at the doorstep or a pick up point such as a church.
Some CSAs expand to sell other farm products such as eggs, dairy and meat. Others expand even further to include non-farm producers such as bakeries to give their members even more choices.
A side benefit of CSAs is their educational value. City dwellers have an opportunity to learn about how their food is produced and what life on the farm is like. Children c an see where food is grown and learn that it does not just magically appear in produce bins, egg cartons and milk bottles. Farm tours offered by CSAs can be an eye-opening experience to say the least.
Some CSAs encourage their members to come and volunteer on their farms. For example, a CSA might have a potato harvest festival. CSAs members volunteer their services to help in the harvest. In turn, they receive a feast of potatoes in various forms plus other garden delights.
As one very young CSA member exclaimed: “ Look Mom. Everyone’s hands are dirty!”
In the next issue of the GPA Gazette, we will discuss other methods of marketing such as farmers’ markets.