Vancouver Food Network

"CSA" is the common acronym for community-supported agriculture, an economic model that more closely ties farmers to their market, using a subscription model.

Each farm and season is slightly different, but the basic idea is that eaters "subscribe" for a share of produce at the beginning of the season and receive a constant supply of vegetables throughout the growing season, subject to the vagaries of farming everywhere. This "sell before you sow" strategy helps guarantee the farmer a fair price in advance, and spreads some of the risk and reward. If the season is a terrific one, the subscribers get an astonishing amount of good food. If the season is a poor one, the farmer is not ruined. As importantly, eaters get fresh and nuritious food, while both farmer and eater form a relationship that enriches the entire transaction.

The Real Dirt on Farmer John

A recent movie that helped popularize the idea of community-supported agriculture was Taggart Siegel's 2005 film The Real Dirt on Farmer John, which chronicled the career and tribulations of John Peterson, as he was raised on and inherited a family farm in Illinois. This documentary became a major rallying point for many, with a web site that includes information on the history and evolution of modern community supported agriculture.

Predecessors to the modern CSA model were first seen in the form of community-based farming in Japan, Switzerland and Chile during the 1960s and 1970s. The first CSAs in the U.S. were established in 1986 in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. More than a thousand CSAs exist today, in 2006, throughout the United States, ranging from having a handful of co-owners to spanning hundreds of acres of land, all giving their members the opportunity to contribute towards supporting a cooperative, mutually beneficial agricultural effort.

Facing foreclosure and bankruptcy, Peterson went to a subscription model and was able to not only save his farm, but expand it as Angelic Organics, with multiple deliveries several days a week in and around Chicago. The success of the movie has allowed Peterson to tour the world promoting this model and Angelic Organics to support one of several emerging CSA learning centers.

CSA's in the Vancouver Area

There have been CSA's in the Portland area since the early 1990's, and at least a few in Clark County over the past five years. A third annual "meet the farmers" event focussing on local CSA's a few weeks ago estimated that the the number of Clark County CSA's has more than tripled in the past few years, and a newly-established web site for CSA's in southwest Washington lists at least a dozen of an estimated twenty. By providing a relatively simple way for small-acreage farmers to keep a larger percentage of the final food dollar than through commodity sales, community-supported agriculture (and related models such as direct-for-restaurant planting) seem a promising business model for eaters and growers alike.

2009 has also seen the emergence of a group and web page specifically for southwest Washington CSA's, as noted below.

For Further Information

In addition to various CSA's here on Vancouver Food Network, there are a variety of general CSA resources available online.

• One emergent list of farms is at http://SWWA-CSAFarms.com
• The CSA category at LocalHarvest.org
• The PBS page about The Real Dirt on Farmer John
• Available from Netflix, Real Dirt's FVRL call number is DVD 630.092 REAL DI
• The Portland-area CSA Coalition includes froms from the north side of the river
• Glenn Grossman often addresses CSA's at ClarkFoodFarm.blogspot.com
• "Small Farms, Big Following: More Families Turning to Locally Grown Foodstuffs" by Dave Kern. The Columbian. Monday, March 16, 2009. p. C1.
• "Doing farming (and Your Shopping) the CSA Way: Community Supported Agriculture Lets Customers Buy a Share in a Local Farm's Bounty" by Leslie Cole. The Oregonian. Tuesday, March 17, 2009. p. F1.

The Sierra Club is also sponsoring a "meet the farmers" event focused on CSA's this coming Wednesday, February 11, 2009, at the Clark County PUD, 1700 Fort Vancouver Way. Find info about this event and more at http://VancouverFood.net/calendar

* Amended to add news articles published after original posting