Basic HTML Version
9
Advantages
CSAs could simplify a farmer’s life. They reduce the need for farmers to spend a lot of time, effort,
and expense on learning how to market, package, label, and distribute their food.
CSAs minimize the time and risk inherent in attending farmers’ markets.
CSAs give the farmer a guaranteed market and the knowledge of exactly how much produce to
package each week.
A CSA farmer knows who is eating the food grown on the land, forming a basis of community.
Funds are provided by subscribers in advance of the planting season, allowing the farmer to buy
seeds, maintain or build structures, repair equipment, and to cover living costs in the off-season.
The consumer knows how the food is grown and what, if any, substances are used in its production.
Each subscriber receives a set share of the harvest, whatever is ripe and ready, on a weekly basis.
CSA subscribers may, in most cases, visit the farm and get some sunshine and soil on their hands.
Subscribers’ food is seasonal, fresh, and has not traveled very far.
CSA members regain a measure of control over their local food supply.
In Alberta food produced on CSA farms is consumed on average within 120 kilometers of where it
was grown, requiring a minimum of transportation costs.
Most CSAs are organic, natural, or biodynamic so the chemical input load on local land is reduced.
CSAs keep farmers on the land, growing food for local consumers. They are an integral part of a
local foods infrastructure.
CSAs offer opportunities for learning new skills – food preservation, animal husbandry, care and
usage of draft animals, and sustainable gardening.
Disadvantages
CSAs must be close to a large population to attract clients. As a result, CSAs are mostly situated in
densely populated parts of the province where agricultural land is at a premium.
When a particular food is in season it’s in abundance; when the season concludes that crop is no
longer available. From July through September, subscribers may have more Swiss chard in
succession than they appreciate. Some CSAs turn this into a positive for their other members by
setting up a Swap Box.
If the weather is unkind or untimely, crops may fail to germinate, thrive, set blossom, grow, or set
fruit. Plants may also freeze, drown, or dehydrate. Chickens may stop laying, cows may go dry, or
lambs may not thrive. These are all part of the risk the farmer has always borne, so the CSA
subscriber bears it too and gets as much or as little as Mother Nature provides.