What is Community Supported Agriculture?

If you’re currently mostly staying at home, especially during this pandemic, and are curious about CSA, this article might be of great interest to you.

Firstly, what does community supported agriculture mean? Community Supported Agriculture consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation so that the farmland becomes, either legally or spiritually, the community’s farm, with the growers and consumers providing mutual support and sharing the risks and benefits of food production. 

Source: https://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/community-supported-agriculture

Why is Community Supported Agriculture Important?

Community supported agriculture is important because it gives you, the consumer, the opportunity to choose how your food is grown. You also get the chance to eat locally-grown and freshly-harvested food, which is very healthy and can produce lots of benefits to your body. 

Community supported agriculture is also important for farmers because of many reasons, which we will talk about in more detail below.

Why is Community Supported Agriculture Good for Consumers?

Community supported agriculture has a lot of benefits to the consumers, which we listed below:

• Fresh produce

  • Consumers have the opportunity to choose how their food is grown

  • Consumers get the chance to eat fresh produce as while food is traveling, it is slowly dying

  • CSA fresh produce can be considered fresher than most produce in the supermarkets as the travel time is significantly smaller

• Health and enjoyment

  • Consumers get to enjoy healthy and locally-grown food 

• Contribution to the community

  • Consumers are able to help the farmers especially during the pandemic

Why is Community Supported Agriculture Good for Consumers

Why is Community Supported Agriculture Good for Farmers?

• Guaranteed income

• • Farmers get a set amount of money

  • Farmers also get the opportunity to buy more seeds, and other farming supplies and equipment

  • Farmers get to know ahead of time how many people are going to buy their products

• Focus on Farming

• • Allows farmers more time to focus on farming compared to going back and forth to the market

• Planning for the Future

• • Because farmers know how much they can earn, they can plan ahead of time on what and when to invest

Why is Community Supported Agriculture important to farmers

How Does Community Supported Agriculture Work? 

For consumers, you can search for CSA apps or websites, then once you’ve chosen an app or website, you can pay for a subscription and you’ll have your fresh produce at your doorstep every month or whenever according to your preference. For farmers, they can join the CSA as the providers of fresh produce. As a result, they will be able to provide consumers fresh produce directly from their farms.

Is Community Supported Agriculture Worth It?

Yes, definitely! As a consumer, not only you can enjoy healthy, fresh, and locally-grown produce, but you are also able to contribute to your community by helping the farmers by buying their produce. Of course, just like any other system, community supported agriculture also has its risks. One risk is if the farmer did not harvest as much as he is committed to providing to you based on your subscription. Nonetheless, it is worth trying, especially during these difficult times.

Recommended Community Supported Agriculture – Local Roots NYC

Why we recommend Local Roots as your CSA: the original CSA model offers subscriptions for only veggies, in local roots, they offer subscriptions for eggs, dairy, meat, and fruits making it more convenient for consumers.