Community agriculture puts farmers' face on food - community supported agriculture

National Catholic Reporter, May 14, 1999 by Kathryn Casa

When Mariquita member Bruce Bennett needs a little extra basil or another eggplant, he doesn't have to run out to the grocery. He can go to his Cupertino, Calif., office, where he and about 10 coworkers started receiving produce deliveries in April.

Bennett, who lives in San Francisco, said he decided to subscribe to Mariquita "to encourage me to eat better and eat more vegetables, and to force me to get more involved in my cooking rather than eating processed foods."

"The other great thing about it is, if I get a bunch of celery, I'm not going to eat it all. So I'll take what I need and share the rest with a neighbor." Bennett, a human resources administrator at Chordiant Software who helped brainstorm the CSA service launched by the company last year, said he sees it as a great benefit for the company's employees.

For this year's recent informational meeting, Julia sent over a complimentary box of organic samples. Julia also is helping create a Web site for all California CSAs. She expects it to serve both as a resource for consumers and as a place where farmers can exchange information.

That kind of be-all, do-all approach to farming is exactly what many say it takes to run a CSA. It is a transition that some conventional farmers are unwilling or unable to make, said Kathy Ozer of the National Family Farm Coalition in Washington. The coalition works to ensure that federal programs benefit family farms and rural communities.

"Some of the limitations have to do with the individual farm or a farmer's interest in being both farmer and marketer, dealing with all those logistics."

Also, a farm's location has a lot to do with its viability as a CSA. Those near more urban population centers in major metropolitan areas often fare better than operations in more rural areas, where people already grow much of their own food. But at a time when federal farm subsidies are fading, thanks to a 1996 farm bill that takes the most market-oriented approach to agriculture since the New Deal of the 1930s, many small farmers are finding a need to subsidize their operations.

Some go to work at a local factory, said Iowa turkey farmer Denise O'Brien. Others subsidize conventional farm operations by selling their products as a CSA on the side. "I don't know that CSAs are economically self-sufficient," said O'Brien, who is part of a unique cooperative called The Magic Beanstalk that is sprouting in and around Ames, Iowa, smack dab in the heart of commodities country. "But some conventional farmers are beginning to look at it in that sense. It's a way to make a little extra money."

In Pennsylvania, Wood subsidizes his farm income by canvassing for an environmental group. His wife still works in Baltimore as a pastoral counselor. "We're piecing together a living," said the farmer.

At Wood's Sproutwood Farm, members can choose a working share, in which they contribute up to 80 hours of farm labor during the growing season in exchange for produce. Or if they prefer less dirt under the fingernails, they can opt for 10 hours of work and $60 per season for a large share of the harvest, less time and money for smaller shares.