Closer to farmers

The CSA concept is quite new in agriculture but it is a revolution. Elizabeth Manwell started buying food in the Kalamazoo farming market through this formula and she is very satisfied with that: “you simply become more self-conscious about what you eat”.
CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Forty-nine CSA farms now exist in Michigan. Jan Vander Tuin imported the idea from Europe in 1984. The concept is new but has a lot of success. For the owner of Blue Dog Greens farm, “CSA farming establishes a real connection between the farmers and the consumers; the consumers get a chance to realize where their food comes from”. Bridgette Leach who owns the Avalon Farms Premium Homegrown with her husband in Climax Michigan explains how it works: “Folks who want to become members of our CSA farm have to subscribe for one season. They have to pay 400$ to subscribe for one share; one share is enough for one or two adults. Then, we deliver to them vegetables and fruits for twenty weeks beginning June”. In Blue Dog greens a member gets fresh vegetables for twenty two weeks and pays 300$ for a single share and 575$ for a family share.
The advantage of this system is obvious on the side of the farmers. The Blue Dog Greens farm adopted it because it “works well with our business plan; it brings us money when we need it in early spring.” According to the CSA Bear-Foot-Farm share-holder Janet Solberg, “we share the risk of the harvest with the farmer; this farming is based on solidarity, it brings a sense of community to agriculture”. Elizabeth Manwell points out the same idea: “you are more in touch with your local community”.
According to Bridgette Leach, this system also “helps promoting Michigan agriculture and gives us a chance to make the consumers aware of the variety of products that exist”. Michigan State is the second state after California with the most important diversity of commodities raised; 125 different products can be grown”. And the CSA system gives value to small farmers’ crops.
Eric Barth “bought a share” for one year with Bear-Foot-Farms. “I felt good about helping this couple of farmers to make a business out of organic farming”. However he did not go on with this experience. According to him, “the problem is that we often got those strange vegetables that you don’t know what to do with”. On the contrary, Elizabeth Manwell enjoys the variety that the two CSA farms she is a member of offer to her: “we got vegetables that we had never eaten before like the Jerusalem artichokes or the tatsoe sprouts; we did have to do some research to know how to cook them but at the end you get to eat more vegetables.” As she really loved the CSA model, she now purchases milk, butter, cheese and meat in local farms. Farmers find ways to get the consumers familiar with those “strange and unknown” vegetables. For Janet Solberg, the CSA formula “educates the people who have a limited idea of what a vegetable is; Bear-Foot Farms gives you recipes to reassure some consumers about what they eat.”
CSA farms provide the subscribers seasonal vegetables and fruits. Share-holders do not choose what they get. They receive a weekly basket of products that depends on the harvest. Bridgette Leach explains that “the members will typically get a pound of tomatoes, a quarter pound of salad and whatever is of season”. However, she points out that her farm is a “hybrid CSA”: “we deliver products that we raise and other products that come from other farms of the state”. Other CSA farms on the contrary only deliver the products they grow.
Vegetables and fruits are fresh and tasty. All the subscribers agree on that point. The Avalon Farms Premium Homegrown delivers the members’ baskets at their home. The owner Bridgette Leach specifies that “the products are picked up the day before or the day of the deliveries.” The subscribers of Bear-Foot-Farms have to go to the farming market of Kalamazoo every Saturday morning to pick up their share. Elizabeth Manwell likes the atmosphere of the market; this is not a problem for her to go there.
Some CSA farms require the members to work a certain amount of time each week in the farm. Janet Solberg really enjoys it: “You learn a lot, and it’s very pleasant.” And the members who are not willing to work can pay not to have to do it. Bridgette Leach explains why they do not require it anymore in her farm: “we do not encourage folks to come to the farm to work because it disrupts the work day; everybody likes to chat; and even if they are unpaid worker we are subject to liability for work injuries, this is still something else to worry about”.
The CSA farms in Michigan Organization emphasizes that CSA farmers are concerned with “environment, sustainability, the local community, and organic production techniques.” Janet Solberg also points out that CSA farming addresses environmental concerns: “CSA farms grow organic food, they do not use pesticides or chemical fertilizers; also, vegetables do not need to be transported, and it reduces pollution”. Bridgette Leach points out that the CSA system enables them to sell more products: “we are able to produce more because we get a good amount of money from the members ahead of time that secure our activity. Thus, CSA farming is not only used as a marketing tool but also as a way to sustain and develop the local economy.