Thinking about signing up for a CSA but want to learn more about the idea before you commit? For basic information, please view the following embedded video. For detailed information, including a history of the CSA movement, keep reading.

What is the Inland Empire CSA? from Diego Media LLC on Vimeo.

Over the last 27 years, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has become a popular way for consumers to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer.

Here are the basics: a farmer offers a certain number of "shares" to the public. Typically the share consists of a box of vegetables, but other farm products may be included.

Consumers purchase a share and in return receive a container of seasonal produce each week throughout the farming season.

It's a simple enough idea, but its impact has been profound. Tens of thousands of families have joined CSAs, and in some areas of the country there is more demand than there are CSA farms to fill it.

Note from Farmer Phil: The government does not track CSAs, so there is no official count of how many CSAs there are in the USA. Local Harvest has the most comprehensive directory of CSA farms, with over 2,500 listed in thier grassroots database.

PLEASE CLICK ON THE ABOVE LOGO FOR DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT OUR CSA (AND TO JOIN).

Consumers joining a CSA farm are more than members, they are partners of the farm and farmer. The advantages to the consumer are many. Following are just a few:

Photo of a Sage Mountain Farm CSA member by Don Cook.The produce is fresh, organic and local. This is healthier than trucked in produce and it is less expensive too. Produce that has just been picked has more vitamins and minerals than produce that sits on store shelves.

Being a part of these local programs helps broaden palates by providing items that buyers might have never tried if it wasn’t made available to them by their CSA farm.

Money spent on a CSA membership goes directly back into the community, whereas money spent on produce trucked in from another country goes out of the country.

A CSA membership supports local farms. These farms are usually family farms and not large corporate entities. The family farm is something that is worth protecting.

Produce not available in stores can be found through CSA farms. For Foodies, this is a real treat. To eat better and healthier produce, joining a CSA is something everyone should look into. If you're not a "Foodie", don't worry, our site has recipes that can be followed by even novice chefs.

CSA is a relatively recent phenomenon in the United States and Canada.

In 1984, Jan Vander Tuin brought the concept of CSA to North America from Europe. Jan had co-founded a community-supported agricultural project named Topanimbur, a biodynamic farm located near Zurich, Switzerland. Upon researching this type of co-op movement in Europe, Vander Tuin found the first producer-consumer food alliance in Geneva which was inspired by European visitors to Chile in the 1970’s. Vander Tuin introduced the idea to Robyn Van En at Indian Line Farm in South Egremont, Massachusetts and the CSA concept in North America was born.

Robyn Van En, Jan Vander Tuin, John Root, Jr., Charlotte Zanecchia, Andrew Lorand, and others formed a core group. They began the first season of their CSA with a small apple orchard operation, and gradually began introducing the "share the harvest" concept to the community. By spring of 1986, Hugh Ratcliffe had joined on as the farmer, and they began to offer shares in their produce harvest. Within four years, the Indian Line CSA expanded from 30 to 150 members. Today, thanks to the pioneer efforts of Robyn Van En, the CSA concept has spread across the nation.

In 1985, there started another 'first' CSA farm, Temple-Wilton Community Farm, located in Southern New Hampshire.  The birth of this CSA farm also followed inspirations and experiences gained in Europe by Trauger Groh, Anthony Graham and Lincoln Geiger.  Groh had studied extensively the concepts of biodynamic farming and produce community co-op programs in Northern Germany and brought his ideas here to the United States, likewise contributing to the founding of Community Supported Agriculture.

Community Supported Agriculture continues to blossom in North America, and it opens various doors of opportunity everyday for local communities, helping them get back in touch with each other. In a CSA environment, this is possible in many ways: quite simply, the shareholders physically get together at pick-up, socially interact with one another and the farmer(s), and provide economic support their neighbors, thanks to one thing that every single living person has in common with the next, eating.

 PLEASE CLICK ON THE ABOVE LOGO FOR DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT OUR CSA (AND TO JOIN).

::: A new community food concept is born.
++ Wilson City College / Chamberburg, PA, USA / URL

The origin of the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) concept, the partnership between consumers and farmers, can be traced to Japan in the mid-1960s. Homemakers began noticing an increase in imported foods, the consistent loss of farmland to development, and the migration of farmers to the cities.

In 1965, a group of women approached a local farm family with an idea to address these issues and provide their families with fresh fruits and vegetables. The farmers agreed to provide produce if multiple families made a commitment to support the farm. A contract was drawn and the "teikei" concept was born, which translated literally means partnership, but philosophically means "food with the farmer's face on it." Clubs operating under the teikei concept in Japan today serve thousands of people sharing the harvest of hundreds of farmers.

In 1971, another group of women who wanted chemical free food for their families joined with agricultural researchers, and farmers to form the Japanese Organic Agriculture Association (JOAA). Sawako Ariyoshi, the Japanese Rachel Carson, had alerted them to the dangers of the chemicals used in agriculture.

The history of the JOAA and Teikei are intertwined.

The first Teikei group began that year when a few farmers in the Kobe area started to experiment in organic farming with a crop of pumpkins grown without chemical fertilizer for a group of local housewives. Within a few years, the Kobe consumer group grew to 1,300 members who felt so passionate about supporting local organic farmers that they were willing to help with the farm work and distribution of the food.

The history of JOAA and Teikei are closely intertwined. Front and center for JOAA has been the urgent need to develop organic farming systems producing for local consumption. For most of its existence, JOAA has opposed organic certification and government involvement, advocating local self-sufficiency and farmer-consumer cooperation and trust.

Only recently, JOAA has come to the reluctant realization that the governments organic program forces farmers who want to sell through stores to certify and that JOAA has a role to play in insisting that the governments standards are appropriate and its procedures are fair.

:: Source: [Genesse Valley Organic CSA, Rochester, NY, USA]
:: Image Credit: [Photographer, URL, State, Country]
:: Innovation: Creating partnerships between families and farmers.
:: Available: Now.

::: A global revolution.
++ Rodale Institute / Kutztown, PA, USA  / URL

The Japanese Organic Agriculture Association (JOAA) has made a passionate declaration of the organization’s emphasis on self-sufficiency and farmer-consumer relations:

“If you value yourself and other life forms,” he declared, “this will lead to world peace.” ~ Kisako Sato, President, Japanese Organic Agriculture Association (JOAA).

JOAA’s leaders are convinced that the younger CSA movement can help revitalize Teikei, in which most of the members are in their 60s and 70s. For small organic farms to survive, they must be flexible and ready to readjust as conditions change.

Some farms can manage pure Teikei or CSA, but many need to cultivate other markets that may require certification (like Sage Mountain Farm and De Luz Farms have done).

American CSAs recruit and retain members by accommodating the particular needs of families in which both parents work.

It is the deeply held conviction of many CSAs that their movement will succeed in building an alternative society in a world of peace where, instead of bullets and missiles, we will exchange seeds and recipes.

PLEASE CLICK ON THE ABOVE LOGO FOR DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT OUR CSA (AND TO JOIN).:: Source: [Originally published in The Community Farm: A Voice for Community Supported Agriculture.]
:: Image Credit: [Karima Salmi, Creative Commons License]
:: Innovation: Using Community Supported Agriculture to promote peace.
:: Available: Now.
:: Cost: $Priceless.

We would like to welcome all of our new members! We truly appreciate the support you and all of our members show to our farms, the local community and the environment.

Because of your support, we would like to invite you to help us in our efforts to actively seek new CSA members.

Our recent expansion requires a new marketing approach. Instead of adding more Farmers Markets, we wish to "grow" our business by adding more CSA members.

One great way to do this is by word of mouth.

We think our CSA program is a "sweet" deal. If you agree, and like our CSA program, please refer your friends and/or family members. They'll be glad you did.

A sweet reward: While supplies last, you will recieve a free jar of honey for each new member that your refer. This is to show our appreciation for your support.

For your free jar of honey, just ask the person you refer to write your name on the form they use to join. That's it! If they do this, a jar of honey will magically appear in your next basket. How sweet it is.

Also, we are actively looking for a new pick up location in La Quinta. As soon as the farmers market ends for the summer we will need that new pick up location. Perhaps you frequent a small health food store or maybe your favorite restaurant in the area.

We now have a new pick up location in the Mission Hills area. Just go to the Starlite Restaurant anytime on Wednesdays from 4pm to 7pm.

PLEASE CLICK ON THE ABOVE LOGO FOR DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT OUR CSA (AND TO JOIN).