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Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
One way for city-dwellers to support local farmers is by participating in a CSA. Members of a farm’s CSA program buy shares of the farm’s harvest. Customers get weekly deliveries of delicious, fresh produce, and farmers are able to spend less of their time selling the food (at farmer’s markets, etc.) and more time producing it. Plus, if a crop suffers for some reason, the farm is able to cope with the loss better because it is financially supported by the community of clients.
For more info on CSAs check out:
Food blogger Cathy Erway recently took a trip with her CSA group to Sang Lee Farms. She writes:
Imagine walking into the office of an industrial agriculture giant, the kind that produces 99% of the food we eat, and saying, “Hey, I’m really interested in learning more about agriculture. Could you tell me a few things about what you do?” Would someone jump up from behind the counter and say, “Sure, let me show you around. Let me take out valuable time from my day, put you on a haystack as we drive around the premises and I’ll tell you all about it — pick an asparagus stalk if you care!” I think you can tell I’m being facetious, but this exemplifies one of the many stark differences about small farms and farmers: that they’re often more than willing to chat with you, answer your questions and help you understand where your food comes from as that one degree of separation. And I was offered an extraordinary case of this friendliness while visiting Sang Lee Farms in Long Island.
Read on for more…
