COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE							        Indian Line Farm, 57
Jugend Road,
			    Great Barrington, Massachusetts 01230


February 9, 1988

The Ideals of Community Supported Agriculture

    Agriculture plays a central role in our existence.  It is the mother of
all our culture and the foundation of our well-being.  Modern farming and
commercial gardening, driven by purely economic considerations, have driven
the culture out and replaced it with business;  agriculture has become
agribusiness.

    The consequences of this shift manifest in continuing ecological
crises, a continuing rise in degenerative illnesses, and impoverished
community life.  The prices we pay for our food may be cheaper than ever,
but the hidden costs, such as:  the exploitation of the agricultural
worker, the depletion of the topsoil, pollution of the ground water and
air, adulteration of the food with chemicals, and its reduced vitality,
etc.;  are being paid in increased taxes to contain only the more obvious
environmental damage and in increased medical services to care for all the
poor-nutrition related illnesses.  Also, the exportation of agribusiness to
the developing world is directly responsible for the famines in Africa and
the subsistence existence most of the third world is consigned to.
Our thinking about agriculture needs fundamental changes, no adjustments or
new technologies will help.

    Community Supported Agriculture offers a method for addressing these
concerns because its primary goal is to grow food which is nutritionally
complete and essentially vital.  CSA does this by building up the soil and
by fostering community responsibility for the social and cultural life of
the garden and farm.  Unlike agribusiness, which has the motto:  "The end
(profits) justifies the means (exploitation)",  CSA's motto is:  "The means
(community) assures the end (quality food)".

    Our ideals for agriculture come to expression in the biodynamic method
of farming which seeks to create a self-sustaining and improving ecological
system in which virtually nothing needs to be imported and everything has
its place in the cycle of the seasons.  Our ideals for the community come
to expression through the sale of shares in the harvest which enable the
sharers to provide a decent standard of living and working conditions for
the staff and to provide long term security for the land which supports us.
The community involvement in the rhythms of the seasons and the
celebrations connected with them will also enable us to find our proper
spiritual connection to nature again.  Biodynamics (Ed. note: or any
agriculture in harmony with nature) and Community, together,  provide the
best hope we know of for the health and long term thriving of our earth and
its people.


		                    Socially and Ecologically Responsible Agriculture