Community Supported Agriculture

In a CSA arrangement (sometimes referred to as crop-sharing), a farmer sells "shares" in his or her farm's upcoming harvest to individuals, families, and institutions in the city. The share price goes toward the costs of growing and distributing a season's worth of produce and paying the farmer a living wage.

The cost of a share – for a bounty of organic vegetables – is competitively priced when compared to the same amount of vegetables conventionally-grown because the distribution cost is lowered.

The concept favors local production and consumption and puts consumer and producer in relation which favors good quality.

Through this arrangement the consumers share the natural risks with the farmer.

In Japan where the concept was developped in the sixties, about 1/4 of the housholds participate in a CSA (called "Teikei").

External links

• http://www.justfood.org (CSA around New York City)
• http://www.csacenter.org (Directory of CSAs in the United States)