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Sign up for CSA (community supported agriculture)

Why This is Green

CSAs (community-supported agriculture programs) began to grow in popularity on the West coast, and now they're entering the mainstream in many communities nationwide.

CSAs typically involve local farmers who pair up with nearby consumers. The consumers pre-purchase a share of the next season's crops, meat, fish, or other goods (honey, cheese, bread, etc.). Sometimes the workload is shared with CSA members. When harvest time comes, the consumer receives regular deliveries of whatever is available, throughout the growing season.

A CSA is good for the environment primarily because the food is grown extremely locally and the transportation footprint is limited to the pick-up location. While by no means a given, many farms in CSAs use more sustainable growing methods than mass producers do. You may find that even if the farm isn't certified organic, organic methods are primarily used. Typically, CSA prices are significantly lower than grocery store organics.

Finally, many swear that locally grown food just tastes better because the wait time between harvest and eating is so minimal. If you don't have a CSA nearby, look for a local farmer's market.

Learn More

How To

To choose a CSA, visit a website such as this one: http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/csa/csa.shtml or visit localharvest.org to choose a CSA in your area. Be thorough in making your choice, as quality, choices, work requirements and growing/production methods can vary widely from one CSA to the next.

The one factor to be prepared for is that you get whatever the farm grew and harvested that week. You may receive items you don't traditionally eat and be left wondering what to do with it. Time to experiment! Look up a new recipe!

Note that you are also at the same risk as the farm is for the impact of any weather or disease issues that wipe out a crop (just ask New England CSA members about tomatoes in 2009).