We think of innovations in cars or computers, but rarely of innovations in farming and food. Yet a new type of farm has caught on rapidly in recent years, in both
CSAs are small farms
owned, jointly, by a nearby community, and that supplies food for people who
live nearby. Sometimes townspeople will buy a plot of land close to town, hire
a farmer to work it for them, and share all the crops. Other times the
community can sell the surplus for a profit.
In some circumstances
the farm is affiliated with a farmer’s market that sells the produce back to
local people, giving the town a source of civic income; in other cases,
townspeople simply own shares in the farm and get part of the harvest as profit.
Still other times the farm is more like an allotment, with families owning
their own sections. There are almost as many models as there are farms.
Such community
ventures solve many problems at once. First, they find a use for plots near
towns that otherwise might go unused. They provide work for farmers in an age
when their numbers are diminishing – and if the community hires young people as
hands, they give wages and rural skills to local youths.
In an interview with Global Public Media, community farmer Jay Martin made the point that many
farmers must go deeply into debt in order to begin or keep farming – and when
they have a successful crop, he says, they must deal with transport and the
uncertainties of the market. When he turned his farm into a CSA, on the other
hand, the costs were covered by the community, and he had no transport costs
and a built-in market.
Turning a local farm
into a CSA also means giving one’s money to local people means that the money
keeps circulating nearby, rather than going to faraway corporations. It means
that your food comes from people you know and trust. It means that people near
you are getting work and staying fed and housed, which benefits your local
community.
But perhaps the most
important use of such farms is keeping local areas self-sufficient. We are
surrounded by fertile land here in Ireland, yet we import most of our food. If
there were another oil crisis, or a war, or any other kind of emergency, we
would have to rebuild a great deal from scratch.
Food transported from
one kilometre away, rather than 10,000, eliminates a major source of climate
chaos and pollution. At present, many foods must be sealed in plastic and foam
packaging, sometimes preserved in chemical gases, to delay spoilage, and even
the healthiest vegetables are less nutritious after sitting on a shelf for
weeks. If the farm is next door, the food is always fresh, and no rubbish need
be generated. In an age when fewer people feel part of a community, a CSA
allows people to invest in a project together, with their neighbours, and share
in the rewards.
When I worked at a
magazine in America, our business bought shares of a CSA, and they grew a
variety of crops for the shareholders. As one crop after another came into
season, they sent us boxes of whatever vegetables we had earned by our share,
so we got weekly deliveries of rutabaga, beans, corn, onions, rhubarb or
whatever was ripening. This was in Minnesota, up near Canada, so the growing
season was quite short, but we got plenty of food for our money, and the farm
stayed in business when so many others went under.
Finally, it gave young
urban people a chance to experience foods they might not have ordinarily, and
to learn to cook things they could not, at first, identify. Many of the office
workers, I suspected, had grown up on a diet of takeout and crisps, and didn’t
know what to do when they first saw a kohlrabi. When I peeled the skin off and
at it like an apple, though, they tried it as well and were hooked. I had to
caution them not to try it with celeriac, however – not all roots are the same.
Of course, Ireland
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