CSA

CSA in Québec

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), often referred to simply as “organic food baskets,” is a concept which links consumers to local organic farms. You become “partner” of a farm by prepurchasing a share of the season’s harvest. Participating vegetable farms deliver baskets of fresh produce to a drop-off point in your neighbourhood each week.

CSA projects have an important social dimension as well, since they allow you to get to know your “family farmers” by lending a hand on the farm or just dropping by for a visit.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) provides a real boost to small-scale farming in Quebec. By purchasing a “share” of a farm’s harvest at the beginning of the season, you allow the farmer to plan his/her season with a measure of financial security; in return, you get to enjoy the organic farmer’s delicious, fresh, nutritious produce throughout the season! CSA also ensures that the farmer receives the full price paid for his/her produce, further encouraging sound, sustainable farming practices.

CSA encourages local organic food production which promotes, among other things, human health and environmental protection. By participating in CSA, you can eat organic food at an affordable price.

(Source : Equiterre – http://www.equiterre.org/agriculture/index.php)

The Origins of CSA

Community-supported agriculture began in the early 1960s in Germany, Switzerland, and Japan as a response to concerns about food safety and the urbanization of agricultural land. Groups of consumers and farmers in Europe formed cooperative partnerships to fund farming and pay the full costs of ecologically sound and socially equitable agriculture. In Europe many of the CSA style farms were inspired by the economic ideas of Rudolf Steiner and experiments with community agriculture took place on farms using biodynamic agriculture.   In 1965, mothers in Japan concerned about the rise of imported food and the loss of arable land started the first CSA projects, called teikei (提携) in Japanese – most likely unrelated to the developments in Europe.

The idea took root in the United States in 1984, when Jan VanderTuin brought the concept of CSA to North America from Europe. At the same time, German biodynamic farmer Trauger Groh co-founded the Temple-Wilton Community Farm in Wilton, New Hampshire.  Vander Tuin had previously co-founded a community-supported agricultural project named Topinambur, located near Zurich, Switzerland. The term “community-supported agriculture” stems from VanderTuin and the Great Barrington, Massachusetts CSA that he co-founded with Robyn Van En.  Since that time, community-supported farms have been organized throughout North America.

(Source : Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community-supported_agriculture)

Questions

Please see our Frequently Asked Questions, or FAQs,  for answers to other questions you may have about Community Supported Agriculture (or anything else), or drop us a line at info@arlingtongardens.ca