On average, 65 cents out of every dollar you spend for food at the supermarket go for packaging, delivery and marketing. Thirty cents go to chemical companies that make fertilizers, pesticides and genetically altered organisms. That leaves five cents for the farmer.
If you wonder why farms are failing (over 20,000 a year go under in the U.S.), that's why. If you wonder why your food seems more like something factory-made than something fresh, alive, healthful or cared for, that's also why."
"Our big-time food system, based on chemicals, supermarkets, and industrial farms, undermines rural economies, the environment, and our health."
In 1965, mothers in Japan concerned about the rise of imported food and the loss of arable land started the first CSA projects, called teikei in Japanese. Japan has more than 600 producer-consumer groups that supply food to more than 11 million people.
The largest cooperative network in Japan is called the Seikatsu Club. Local chapters of this club can involve thousands of people and support up to 15 farms. While distinct from CSA or teikei, Seikatsu members speak of "seeing the farmer's face on their vegetables."
Community supported agriculture began in the United States on two East Coast farms in 1986. Since that time, community supported farms have been organized throughout North America, mainly in the Northeast, the Pacific coast, the Upper Midwest, and Canada.
North America now has an estimated 1,000 community supported farms, of which
we are one.
The value of joining this, or any other, Community Supported Agriculture Farm is beyond compare to traditional shopping methods. You receive weekly fresh grown produce without pesticides and/or genetic modification. You help sustain local farming thus making stronger our local economy.
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