Community Supported Agriculture
A Pledge to the Farmland
Food from the Earth for Friends
In the beginning of the 1960's individuals in countries experiencing vast industrialization yearned for re-connection with the earth and each other. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is both legal and spiritual movement designed to form interdependent farming communities solely bent on advancing farming prosperity through one's connection to the earth. Members work to achieve a direct relationship with their consumers to give them the best quality products in both health and salesmanship.
From Notion to Action
Rapid industrialization from the earlier half of the 20th century decimated country-sides as businesses and their supporting governments plotted grounds for further Urbanization. In the early 1960's citizens in countries like Japan and Switzerland observed that farmers were vastly losing profit and falling into debt because industrialization consumed their profit market. To amend this loss in their market, groups of farmers began band together in shares and other economic partnerships. These partnerships worked to provide economic security for all the involved parties; share-holders received profits from all included agriculture to ensure each farmer received a profit, even in times of drought with poor crop yield. As this concept spread, the economic safety attracted many farmers to join these types of partnerships, and the increase in number of farmers in the groups lead to a vast conglomeration of several agricultural products. In any one group there may be farmers specializing in grain, produce, or even livestock. As these communities grew, participating individuals began to realize that their product variety allowed for possible independent communities, and in the mid 1980's the first few CSAs began to flourish. These new agriculture based communities work first to provide foodstuffs for all participating communities and then worked to ensure economic security for the community, which allowed for some of these larger CSAs to act as distinct identities, similar to small cities or businesses. This new community ensured a safe and healthy lifestyle for farmers that was previously difficult to attain in this modern consumerist world.
Food by the People for the People
The typical CSA is formed by a group of five to twelve farmers that cultivate and harvest from lands in close proximity. Most participants of CSAs are members of their own economic partnerships, meaning all members benefits economically from the entirety of the crop yield. This ensures economic stability for all partners in times of drought or other natural disasters that lead to poor crop yields; however, all members feel the economic constraint. Fortunately, most members are attracted to CSAs because of the relationships they form with each other and their consumers. Farmers in a CSA know they are giving only the best effort and quality in their products: if crops aren't quite yet ripe, they wait until they have reached peak nutritional value before allowing their customers to purchase. This loyalty to their service and customers is what sets members of a CSA apart from farmers and plantations who mass produce for mass market sales.
Community Supported Agriculture.