EcoHearth Environmental Website - Best ecology websites, environmental blogs, news, activism, green jobs, green products

I would like to encourage farmers, foodies and food ecologists to reconsider the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) movement as not so radical, our motivations not so groundbreaking and our goals not so unreachable. We are rich! If not in money, then in wisdom and experience. The only thing groundbreaking about us is the shovel we use to double-dig our garden beds. Our creed is one of common sense; indeed, sustainable agriculture is the only thing that makes sense. Let us prepare to get indignant about the status of our food system, the Earth, and that which is truly ours, the wellness of our communities.

The USDA calls Community Supported Agriculture a “new idea in farming” that has been gaining momentum since the 1980s. However, if I understand correctly, agriculture—up until the 1950s—was always community supported. Farmers growing food for their neighbors and nascent neighborhoods is what modern civilization was built on.

In basic terms, CSA consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation so that the farmland becomes, either legally or spiritually, the community’s farm, with growers and consumers providing mutual support while sharing the risks and benefits of food production. Typically, members or shareholders of the farm or garden pledge to cover the anticipated costs of the operation and the farmer’s salary. In return, they receive shares in the farm’s bounty throughout the growing season, as well as the satisfaction gained from reconnecting to the land and participating directly in food production. Members also share in the risks of farming, including poor harvests due to unfavorable weather or pests.

So why hasn’t this form of farming and empowerment spread like wildfire? Because it is nearly impossible to monopolize or profit from.

Large agribusinesses will never get involved in sustainable agriculture because the very defnition of it is to be self-reliant, self-sustaining and not dependent on outside and commercially produced inputs. This does not mean it is not productive; rather the products and profits are too dispersed—spread out across the earth and among a billion or more people.

Proven fact: Every dollar you currently have in your possession could be used to feed someone. Whether it be you, a low-income child in Oakland learning all about the Brassica family, or a farmer in Africa who, after being informed about the Bill and Melinda Gates version of biotechnological farming, opts instead for a system of organic and ecologically appropriate practices. We are not asking for charity. We are asking every person to actively engage in the act of reclamation, to commit to supporting their community of local, regional and global farmers. We are asking you to remember the proverb: Give a man food, he will eat for a day. Teach a woman to farm, she can feed the whole world (slight variation).

So let us stop asking Obama to fix all of our problems. Indeed, his appointment of Vilsack to the Department of Agriculture does not leave much more to be said. Instead, let’s practice what we preach: community building and nurturing traditions, along with throwing our money at edible education and agro-ecological outreach.

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that we would need $12 billion to solve world hunger this year. That is roughly how much animal lovers in the US and EU will spend on pet food. So please, around the dinner table, do not hesitate to ask where that lima bean was born. Because it does make a difference whether it was Lima, Peru, Limaburg, Kentucky, your community garden or your backyard.

[This piece was written by Yelena Filipchuk and provided courtesy of the Society for Agriculture and Food Ecology. – Ed.]