BD Now! Podcast 017 The Future of CSA with Steven McFadden & Jean-Paul Courtens

Biodynamics Now! Investigative Farming and Restorative Nutrition Podcast

What if you created a system of agriculture that solved many of today's problems around nutrition and farming and it was being destroyed by the very same degenerated food system it was seeking to replace?

Community supported agriculture is a social movement that arose in the US in the late 1980s because people recognized a need to produce healthy, clean, safe, ecologically sound and spiritually energized - foods while caring appropriately for the environment. It was clear then as it is today that agriculture within the pressures of the current economic system is subject to so many degrading economic forces that it is incapable of producing foods that provided the nutrients necessary for proper human health and development. While there are larger issues at stake when children (and adults) are developing with only a fraction of the nutrition required to reach their full potential, we can see these nutritional short comings in increasing rates of cancers, allergies and intestinal problems. In addition, the environmental impact of extractive agriculture is seen everywhere.

The ecological movement and the biodynamic movement in particular sought to find models of farming that would allow small and medium sized farmers to produce the highest quality foods with traditional "unbusinesslike" methods of farming without the fear of bankruptcy. In other words a successful socio-economic mode. around food and farming. In the beginning, CSAs were without question organic and, usually, biodynamic, contributing substantially to the health of their members through minimizing toxicity and maximizing nutrition of the foods provided.

CSA was a simple but profound model in which cooperation between a farmer and the people who would eat what he produced assured clean, nutritious foods for the consumers, a guaranteed, if small, income for the artisan farmer, appropriate husbandry of soil, plants and livestock, as well as the peripheral benefits of providing access to the land for the children of member families, habitat that promoted and supported biodiversity as well as , in the early years, providing an example that farming without chemicals could actually work. In other words, CSA provided much more than 'a bag of produce every week for the growing season.

Steven McFadden has pointed out that CSA farms in the USA are so popular that they have grown from 2 in 1988 to 8500 in 2013. Unfortunately, not many of the CSAs in the 2013 figure even try to address the values that made CSA so important to the future of local food and farming in the beginning.

One of the great short comings of the CSA nationally was the failure for its leaders to provide at least a minimal definition of CSA, instead promoting the open minded foolishness that "the wonderful thing about CSA is there is no definition." Really? Nothing as simple as 'A group of consumers coming around a farmer and a piece of land to tend to the land in every way appropriate while producing the highest quality food for the community and a dependable living wage for the farmer"?

A whole raft of 'produce delivery' schemes have arisen, all of them using the term "CSA" to market under, which, apparently, was defined as 'a box or bag of produce once a week." There's a farm outside of Baltimore that sells 800 CSA shares off from 2 acres of land and, then, if you can believe it, wholesales shares to a retailer in Rockville who, with no farm and nor farmer, has posed as a "CSA" in for many years. (This really became distasteful two years ago when the source farm dropped 'organic' from its description (because the produce was coming from a general commercial produce auction) but the reseller in Rockville continued to offer that same commercial produce as "organic" "CSA" shares.)

Even more insidious are the aggregators, the ones that have pulled many farms together to compete against the many family farms that until recently have been making a reliable living with traditional CSAs. A major reason that the CSA arrangement is necessary for keeping small organic farms viable is that small farms cannot produce enough 'product' to qualify as suppliers for commercial retail organic food stores. They are too small to enter the marketplace (never mind how the wholesale returns for doing so would most likely degrade their ability or willingness to properly care for their land). Now we have 'co-operatives' of dozens of organic farms that were assembled by corporate organic specialists for the noble task of providing the wholesale markets with local food but instead have turned onto the CSA marketplace since their return price-per-pound is much higher if the get "CSA retail" rather than wholesale. So, keep in mind that these cooperatives have access to markets but have chosen to compete with small farmers in a system that was initially designed to support small local biological farming. To me, this has all the ethics of upper class bullies stealing the lunch money of younger students simply because they are able to do it. Worse in this case, because these co-ops are profitable, the very sustainable ag organizations that should be pulling them out of inappropriate competition with small farmers aid and abet them in their efforts.

Another really sad thing has happened. If you want to enter the CSA marketplace for no more reason than to make money, you can call yourself a CSA, source your produce from anywhere, and use any of the web-based CSA advertising platforms - - that the CSA movement either developed or the brilliant intentions of the original CSA movement inspired others to create- -to advertise your fake CSA without fear of restriction.

Jean-Paul has told me in private conversation that the original CSA movement need not fear these commercialized intruders in the CSA movement because 'we will beat them on price and, more importantly, we will beat them on flavor.' Jean-Paul is right but Jean-Paul's farm has deep pockets and can suffer a season or two of reduced income. Most of the small farms in the original CSA movement have never been able to look more than a season ahead, unfortunately.

It is true, two of the biggest commercial aggregators in the DC area have folded. Unfortunately, so have a number of small CSAs that have been established for years. On the national level, great CSAs like Angelic Organics are selling to the whole sale market for the first time ever, their CSA share sales reduced some 30% by so-called competition

Which reminds me: it certainly can be said that there weren't lots of farmers markets back in 1988 when CSA started and now they are everywhere on almost every day. That's true but, at least in this area, few of the market stands are organic and even fewer offer as many benefits, short and long term, as CSA offers for dollars spent on food. For those who cannot be motivated by principle, only by dollars-and-cents, most CSA's provide a season of organic produce and appropriate land management for much less than the same food, perhaps not organic, perhaps not grown in a deeply sustainable fashion, will cost at farmers markets.

Here's a pretty standard definition of CSA (from the now defunct Wilson College CSA center):

CSA is a relationship of mutual support and commitment between local farmers and community members who pay the farmer an annual membership fee to cover the production costs of the farm. In turn, members receive a weekly share of the harvest during the local growing season. The arrangement guarantees the farmer financial support and enables many small- to moderate-scale organic and/or bio-intensive family farms to remain in business. Ultimately, CSA programs create "agriculture-supported communities" where members receive a wide variety of foods harvested at their peak of freshness, ripeness, flavor, vitamin and mineral content.

The goals of Community Supported Agriculture support a sustainable agriculture system which . . .provides farmers with direct outlets for farm products and ensures fair compensation.

• encourages proper land stewardship by supporting farmers in transition toward low or no chemical inputs and utilization of energy saving technologies.

• strengthens local economies by keeping food dollars in local communities.

• directly links farmers with the community- allowing people to have a personal connection with their food and the land on which it was produced.

• makes nutritious, affordable, wholesome foods accessible and widely available to community members.

• creates an atmosphere for learning about non-conventional agricultural, animal husbandry, and alternative energy systems not only to the farmers and their apprentices, but also to members of the community, to educators from many fields of study, and to students of all ages.

One fact also to consider, organic food produced within local communities is not the same as organic food transported over long distances. When members obtain food from local farmers, environmental costs associated with the transport, processing and distribution of organic food and the consumption of fossil fuels are significantly reduced. Considering that the organic food available to members was produced locally rather than transported over long distances, the cost to the environment is significantly less.

Today's program, "The Future of CSA," addresses many of these issues.