Starting A CSA
July 8, 2010 There’s very little that’s negative about community supported agriculture (CSA). After all, what could possibly be better than having consumers who are actively engaging in, becoming educated about, and supporting a local farm? However, admiring the concept and actually starting a CSA farm are two entirely different things. Growers must evaluate the challenges and benefits of starting a CSA to determine if it’s right for their farm and area.
Starting a CSA may not be practical for every grower. For one thing, it’s a lot of work, says Glenda Ploeger of Cane Creek Asparagus & Co. in Fairview, NC.
“Operating a successful CSA farm is the hardest job you will ever take on — farming or otherwise,” she says.
Still, the number of CSAs have increased dramatically across the country in recent years. Introduced to the U.S. in the 1980s, data collected in 2007 by USDA indicated that 12,549 farms in the U.S. reported marketing products through a CSA arrangement.
- Getting Started: A CSA Checklist
Ploeger, who has been operating her farm with her husband for more than 10 years, says she feels their experience gives them an advantage with consumers looking for membership. When the Ploegers began experimenting with CSA farming, there were fewer than 20 CSAs in western North Carolina. This year the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project has more than 75 CSA farms listed in its online farm guide.
“Cane Creek is one of the farms holding the experience card because most of these CSAs are in their first or second year of operation,” Ploeger says. “I wonder how many will be here in two more years, once the lure of easy money is gone and the reality of continuous hard work sets in. And will their performance be consistent with the quality that those of us who have been operating successful CSA farmers for more than 10 years strive toward? I fear if too many farmers jump into the CSA arena and disappoint large numbers of CSA members, the bad experience will have a negative effect on all local CSAs.”
A small operation with 16 tillable acres, the Ploegers grow more than 70 varieties of vegetables on 6 or 7 acres at a time. Ploeger finds representing the agriculture community in public as a way of life to be quite rewarding. “As a CSA farmer, you become an ambassador of the farming community in all that you do and everywhere you go and with all people you meet, because you must always be direct marketing and attempting to obtain members for the present and future seasons,” she says.
How CSAs Work
There are many types of CSA arrangements — from growers beginning their own, to grower cooperatives pulling from their products to support a CSA, to consumers forming a CSA and hiring a farmer to do the work. Every arrangement operates differently; however, the concept is similar.
Consumers, often described as shareholders or members, typically purchase shares or memberships prior to the growing season, providing the grower with capital to start the business and ensuring a guaranteed market for the produce. Members have the benefit of relying upon fresh produce throughout the growing season, picking up their shares once or twice each week, with size of shares varying in quantity and variety. As shareholders, they share the risk with the grower and provide a secure setting and living wage.
Some CSAs include mandatory volunteerism of their members, providing free labor and keeping costs down; however, grower-run CSAs often require only member visits or set up events for members to help with farm maintenance. The concept is to involve consumers in producing their own food, but Ploeger says as a small operation, her farm would require a separate manager to oversee volunteers and handle members, adding liability among other worries.
Last year the Tri-County Cooperative Auction Market in East Windsor, NJ, added a small CSA, with 10 member families, each paying $500 annually. The cooperative benefits in that growers bring their produce to sell at auctions every week, and grower members provide all of the care of the grounds during farmer work days once or twice each year.
Manager Pegi Ballister-Howells says the cooperative also provides CSA members with more product diversity, which has been well-received by the membership, and she hopes to grow membership this year via word-of-mouth.
“With 73 grower members at the auction market, CSA members get a large variety of product,” she says. “Every week, I always make sure each family gets at least one sweet fruit, one oddball thing, and plenty of variety.”
Weighing The Options
A successfully run CSA can be a valuable asset for most grower operations. This method of marketing provides liquid capital when it is needed, with shared financial risks. Shareholder investment provides a guaranteed market for at least a portion of the crops, before they are even planted, and at a set price.
“CSA marketing is more lucrative than marketing commodity crops or tailgate marketing when you look at price per pound,” Ploeger says. “Charge enough to make a living wage. There will always be someone down the road who will undercut your price. Your job is not to compete with other farmers with regard to price, but rather to provide CSA members with the best possible product you can every week of the harvest season.”
CSAs also put a face on local food, linking growers with their consumers and communities. “Growing food for specific individuals can have a great impact on you as a farmer, just like eating food grown specifically for you has a great impact on you as a consumer,” Ploeger says.
Conversely, operating a CSA presents certain challenges, including the necessity of an entire skill set that some growers may not have, including interacting with the public, communicating with members, coordinating and managing volunteers, and determining distribution logistics. Developing a list of which crops to grow and determining how much to grow in relation to the size of membership, when to harvest, and promoting the CSA to develop membership can also prove challenging.
“Plant about twice what you anticipate you will need,” Ploeger suggests. “Yes, it is expensive, but the extra vegetables can be donated to food banks and shelters.”