Community Supported Agriculture - LocalHarvest (2025)

Thinking about signing up for a CSA but want to learn more about the idea before you commit? Read on.

For over 25 years, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) hasbecome a popular way for consumers to buy local, seasonal fooddirectly from a farmer.

Here are the basics: a farmer offers a certain number of "shares" to thepublic. Typically the share consists of a box of vegetables, but other farmproducts may be included. Interested consumers purchase a share (aka a"membership" or a "subscription") and in return receive a box (bag, basket) ofseasonal produce each week throughout the farming season.

This arrangement creates several rewards for both the farmer and the consumer. In brief:

Advantages for farmers:

• Get to spend time marketing the food early in the year, before their 16 hour days in the field begin
• Receive payment early in the season, which helps with the farm's cash flow
• Have an opportunity to get to know the people who eat the food they grow

Advantages for consumers:

• Eat ultra-fresh food, with all the flavor and vitamin benefits
• Get exposed to new vegetables and new ways of cooking
• Usually get to visit the farm at least once a season
• Find that kids typically favor food from "their" farm - even veggies they've never been known to eat
• Develop a relationship with the farmer who grows their food and learn more about how food is grown

It's a simple enough idea, but its impact has been profound. Tens of thousandsof families have joined CSAs, and in some areas of the country there is moredemand than there are CSA farms to fill it. The government does not track CSAs,so there is no official count of how many CSAs there are in the U.S..LocalHarvest has the most comprehensive directory of CSA farms, with over 4,000listed in our grassroots database.

Variations

As you might expect with such a successful model, farmers have begun tointroduce variations. One increasingly common one is the "mix and match," or"market-style" CSA. Here, rather than making up a standard box of vegetablesfor every member each week, the members load their own boxes with some degreeof personal choice. The farmer lays out baskets of the week's vegetables. Somefarmers encourage members to take a prescribed amount of what's available,leaving behind just what their families do not care for. Some CSA farmers thendonate this extra produce to a food bank. In other CSAs, the members have widerchoice to fill their box with whatever appeals to them, within certainlimitations. (e.g. "Just one basket of strawberries per family, please.")

CSAs aren't confined to produce. Some farmers include the option forshareholders to buy shares of eggs, homemade bread, meat, cheese, fruit,flowers or other farm products along with their veggies. Sometimes severalfarmers will offer their products together, to offer the widest variety totheir members. For example, a produce farmer might create a partnership with aneighbor to deliver chickens to the CSA drop off point, so that the CSA memberscan purchase farm-fresh chickens when they come to get their CSA baskets. Otherfarmers are creating standalone CSAs for meat, flowers, eggs, and preservedfarm products. In some parts of the country, non-farming third parties aresetting up CSA-like businesses, where they act as middle men and sell boxes oflocal (and sometimes non-local) food for their members.

Shared Risk

There is an important concept woven into the CSA model that takesthe arrangement beyond the usual commercial transaction. That is thenotion of shared risk: in most CSAs, members pay up front for thewhole season and the farmers do their best to provide an abundant boxof produce each week. If things are slim, members are not typicallyreimbursed. The result is a feeling of "we're in this together". Onsome farms the idea of shared risk is stronger than others, and CSAmembers may be asked to sign a policy form indicating that they agreeto accept without complaint whatever the farm can produce.

Many times, the idea of shared risk is part of what creates a sense ofcommunity among members, and between members and the farmers. If a hailstormtakes out all the peppers, everyone is disappointed together, and togethercheer on the winter squash and broccoli. Most CSA farmers feel a great sense ofresponsibility to their members, and when certain crops are scarce, they makesure the CSA gets served first.

Still, it is worth noting that very occasionally things go wrong on a farm -like they do in any kind of business - and the expected is not delivered, andmembers feel shortchanged. At LocalHarvest we are in touch with CSA farmers andmembers from all over the country. Every year we hear get complaints about afew CSA farms (two to six farms a year, over the last nine years) wheresomething happened and the produce was simply unacceptable. It might have beena catastrophic divorce, or an unexpected death in the family. Or the weatherwas abominable, or the farmer was inexperienced and got in over his/her head.

In our experience, if the situation seems regrettable but reasonable - a badthing that in good faith could have happened to anyone - most CSA members willrally, if they already know and trust the farmer. These people are more likelyto take the long view, especially if they have received an abundance of producein the past. They are naturally more likely to think, "It'll be better nextyear," than are new members who have nothing to which to compare a dismalexperience. The take-home message is this: if the potential for "not gettingyour money's worth" makes you feel anxious, then shared risk may not be for youand you should shop at the farmers market.

Sometimes we hear complaints from CSA members in situations where it appears tous that nothing really went wrong, but the member had unreasonableexpectations. In the hope of minimizing disappointment and maximizingsatisfaction, we've prepared the following tips and questions.