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Re: Community Supported Agriculture (fwd)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 11 Apr 95 10:06:21 -0400
From: Bob Engelman <re@popact.org>
To: sustag@beta.tricity.wsu.edu
Subject: Re: Community Supported Agriculture (fwd)
Jeff Lakey writes:
>I've recently become exposed to the idea of Community Supported
>Agriculture. I'm interested in its potential to help with the problem of
>agriculture around metropolitan areas serving as a temporary land use
>(awaiting retirement of the farmer and endless suburbanization).
>
>I presume it is recent, and don't expect to find much in the library
>literature about it, but will be checking there as well. Anyone have a
>reference starting point to find out more?
May I recommend a book called Farms of Tomorrow: Community
Supported Farms, Farm Supported Communities, by Trauger Groh and Steven
S.H. McFadden, published in 1990 by the Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening
Association, P.O. Box 550, Kimberton, PA 19442, 610-935-7797,
1-800-516-7797. The cost is $12.00 plus $2.75 for shipping.
There is also an association called something like the North
American Association of Community Supported Agriculture. They have a few
minimalist publications which might be of service. I may be getting the
name a bit wrong and will try to return with more detailed information.
The idea of community supported agriculture has its roots largely
in the German-speaking countries of Europe, with considerable influence as
well from Japan. Its philosophical roots lie in the agricultural ideas of
Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian philospher and scientist who lived from 1861 to
1925. Two key convictions guide the CSA movement, which is growing rapidly
in the United States and elsewhere: 1) that urban dwellers and other people
who do not personally grow food can buy shares in the annual output of a
local farmer, thus reducing her/his risk and providing her/him the capital
to 2) restore the soil and other agricultural resources so that the entire
community is enhanced by what the farm becomes and the activity that goes
on there. Good CSAs also involve shareholders in work, fun and community
activities on the farm, helping to teach children, for example, that food
does not come from the grocery store but from soil, water, sweat and love.
I'm too busy at the moment to do so right now, but I hope to post
soon a document concerning the CSA of which I am a member, the Chesapeake
(Maryland) CSA near Washington, D.C.. The entire concept is one of the most
exciting I have encountered in the field of "sustainably-oriented"
agriculture, and I believe its future could be exceedingly bright.
Best,
Bob Engelman
Takoma Park, MD