DO YOU WANT TO HELP YOUR LOCAL ECONOMY?
DO YOU WANT TO SUPPORT LOCAL FOOD AND AGRICULTURE?
DO YOU WANT YOUR FOOD TO BE GROWN ORGANICALLY?
DO YOU WANT TO KNOW THE FARM AND FARMER YOUR FOOD COMES FROM?
LETS START A MOVEMENT, AND CHANGE THE WORLD, BECAUSE TOGETHER WE CAN!
JOIN A CSA!
REGRETS LEFT AT THE DOOR.
“Remember the five simple rules to be happy:
1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.”
~Jeff Bridges~
Organic CSA's are far more sustainable and eco friendly then major commercial farms, and is an extremely viable why to work the great “reskilling” into the lives of community members involved in the CSA. There are two types of CSA's, and CSA is an acronym for both of them. They stand for Crop Share Alliance, and Community Supported Agriculture. Both are great ways of getting organically grown meat and vegetables while supporting your local economy and farmers. In a world that has turned to industrialization and mass production, we need to find ways to limit our use of earths natural resources, for we are running out of them, and CSA's are a great way to take a positive step in the right direction.
A crop share alliance is a means of farming where a farmer receives payment for his crops local community members, before it as actually ready for harvest. This farmer uses that money to then plant his crops, and once harvesting begins, the people who have invested in the farmers CSA will then begin to receive fresh organically grown produce for a set time in return for their early payment. As with anything there are both downfalls and advantages to having a crop share alliance. We will start with the advantages. This gives people who don’t have enough land to have their own garden have access to to fresh locally grown produce, meat, and dairy. It supports local business,and your ow local economy, just as buying anything local does.You can feel comfortable about what you are consuming, because you know where your food is coming from and can see that it is grown organically, with out any harmful pesticides or herbicides or fungicides.Also many people hold full time jobs, and this limits there ability to tend to a garden, and so they can still have organic locally grown food available to them through these great organizations. Although there are all of these great benefits, just as anything there comes downfalls. Although the benefits outweigh the downfalls it is important to know both sides. The most significant downfall would most likely be that people don't learn the subsistence farming skills themselves, and still remain dependent upon an outside source for the supply of their produce and meats and such. Also, we unfortunately have to keep in mind that these are still generally large farms, and because of that it is important to keep in mind the amount of machinery needed to produce large crops. Finally it truly really does just create a lot of work for a single farmer and maybe a few farm hands.
Of course the other type of CSA as afore mentioned, is community supported agriculture, sometime referred to as community gardens. Community gardens are where people pay for a small area of land on a large plot, and do their own farming and can grow whatever they wish. This is beneficial in many ways. This includes, people who don’t have their own land to grow on now have a place to grow whatever they wish, this of course is a similar benefit to that stated about crop share alliances, accept there are no limits, beside of course laws and climate to the different things you can grow, and you get to choose. The most important benefit is hands down is that the people learn the skills for themselves. Social interaction, is also another key benefit from community gardens, because people can trade plants, vegetables, herbs and what not. They can learn from each other and even make new friendships. The most comforting benefit is probably just that you know first hand what was used in the growing process, and because of that you know you have truly organic produce and plants. It once again also is a way to boost your local economy because its not imported. Due to the fact that it doesn't travel and you harvest it when ready, your plants and food are as fresh as possible. Of course though there are downfalls, there are not many, but they do exist. The first is you have to have time to tend to the garden, so a person who works a lot may not be able to pay the garden enough attention and have a poor or unhealthy crop for that reason. The other downfall is the limit of space, because the plots are not usually very large.
CSA's have the ability to produce a multiplicity of goods from meat to dairy products to fruits and vegetables. Beef, chicken and any other meats they may produce, such as pork, all organically and grass fed, if they choose to do so, can be made available as well if the farmer so chooses to tend livestock. Dairy products from milk cows, such as fresh non hormonal milk and cheese, are another great venture to dabble in, and also not just raise animals for slaughter. You could do the same with eggs from chickens. They also have the ability if they own livestock to produce their own fertilizer from the manure of their livestock, therefore making them in just one more way a little bit sustainable.
Last but not least of course are crops, such as: corn, cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, etc.
Why is this important though, your asking yourself. I offer the afore listed reasons as to why CSA's are beneficial, and many more. One of the most prevalent problems with commercially farm grown fruits and vegetables is as the price of oil goes up so does the cost of all of these things we can produce right in our community. These prices go up, not because it is harder to attain but instead because it costs more to ship. So Why go outside of your community and pay the extra money to get the milk or whatever it may be imported. Local economies also suffer greatly from this, because it is common sense that the more we import from other countries the more money that leaves our local economy. In todays day and age it seems as though farms are focusing on growing greater and lager crops, and therefore need chemical aid to keep such large crops healthy, and crops shouldn’t be grown with harmful chemicals and growth hormones that we later ingest. Lastly it is an important skill to know how to cultivate and work with the land around you when it comes down to it people really should learn the skills involved with cultivating land.
In our class we watched the film escape from suburbia, there was a part in the film where the interviewed the owners of a local California CSA, and its members. The most prevalent and impressive part of this CSA, where the kindness and relationships it created in what really seemed like not so great a part of California. Towards the end of the film the CSA was destroyed, and many of its members protested and gathered to show there discontent with its destruction, these people really do become just as much a part of the CSA as it is a part of them. The most distinct part of the film “Green Horns” for me was when they were talking to one of the farming families, and he discussed how no actual farmer that works in the fields, really want to produce massive commercialized crops, because it really such a great amount of work for one single human being. It just makes more sense to have smaller more localized farms available where the work load is divided amongst multiple farms in an area. According to the book “The Future of Life”, the world has a a capacity limit generally measured in food available to population, in the book they used grain. The annual grain harvest yields about 2 billion tons annually. That is enough to feed approximately, 10 billion east Indians, but only about 2.5 billion Americas. As other countries grow to the level of consumption we have as we see trending across the world, we can adjust the lack of supplies, by coming more self sufficient and sustainable, including doing things like supporting local agriculture.
As brought up in the book “Living With Your Land,” in the section called First Steps For the Individual,farming is not only a way to become more self sustainable, but can also be used as a way to protect your land. For instance, “he can plant wheat, rye, or rye grass to hold the top soil: can protect sloping tracts by planting or retaining vegetation.” Also, as mentioned in our text book, “industrialized food production requires huge inputs of energy,” we can reduce the input of energy making smaller more prevalent farms that require less energy to run and uses far less machinery, or is a form of “traditional subsistence agriculture”, or “traditional intensive agriculture,” which both rely on the use of draft-animals instead of fossil fuel burning farm machines. As talked about in the book Frontiers in Agricultural Research: Food, Health, Environment, and Communities, over the past three decades there have been a lot of changes to the food and agriculture industries, and the demands placed on the agriculture based industries need to find find new innovative solutions, and I believe a CSA is just that.
Steps are being taken everyday across the world for farmers to switch to more organic and more sustainable means of farming. We find not only in our own country these efforts but efforts expanding into other countries, such as the efforts going on in Thrissur now. According to an article from City Journal their lands have been devastated by the use of harmful farm aiding chemicals. We also find many efforts here in the U.S. as well. There are already multiple bans on certain harmful pesticides and fungicides and other chemicals farmers have used with more going into place. There is also a new billy in place to make some changes to the recent 2008 Farm Bill, that was put in place to grant financial aid to farmers in need. We also much more of a prevalence of people seeking to use CSA's, and farmers, and young new developing farmers turning to CSA's to provide for their livelihood.
There are many cool things that farmers can do with their CSA's or really any farm when it comes down to it. Although it makes work much more difficult, animal power is a great way to reduce your emissions and uses of fossil fuels by eliminating the use of large bulky far equipment that is harmful the environment. You can also extend educational benefits greatly by offering summer or 4h camps for the next generation to learn the valuable skills of working the land. A crop share alliance could also run the possibility of delivering their goods, and running their delivery trucks off of corn ethanol fuel. Farms are generally very open areas in order for lots of sunlight and water to get for them, and that leaves lots of room for self sustainable renewable energy systems, such as solar panels and wind mills.
In the end new CSA's are popping up all over the country and for the right reasons, such as Gator CSA run by Anna Prizzia who says “We started Gator CSA in an effort to provide the community with better access to local produce,” according to the Gainesville Sun. Whats even better to hear though is that this isn't only possible here in America, Thrissur is taking many steps to making their entire state only organic farming due to the harm of certain chemical agents, according to a City Journal article. Steps are being taken even within our government to help these farmers remain in business, and a new bill has just been presented in Congress, that will address some problems in the 2008 farm bill, according to (Enewspf.com). As you can organic sustainable farming through CSA's have substantial benefits, including lighter work loads, stronger local economy, organically grown food with out harmful use of chemicals, like many U.S. Farmers and even farmers in Thrissur are working on moving away from. I can't sit here and say That CSA's are the solution to all of our problems, but what I sure can tell you is they are a step in the right direction.
By: Nicholas Pepper
Bibliography:
Frontiers in Agricultural Research: Food, Health, Environment, and Communities. Washington, D.C.: National Academies, 2003. Print.
Miller, G. Tyler, and Scott Spoolman. Living in the Environment. [Pacific Grove, Calif.?]: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning, 2012. Print.
Escape From Suburbia. Dir. Gregory Greene. Perf. Ed Schreyer, Matthew Simmons and Richard Heinberg. IMdB, 2007. DVD.
De Los Santos, Elise. "Fresh and Sustainable." Gainesville Sun. 5 Nov. 2011. Web. 5 Nov. 2011. <http://www.gainesville.com/article/20111105/ARTICLES/111109743/-1/news?Title=Fresh-and-sustainable>.
Vosburgh, John R. Living with Your Land; a Guide to Conservation for the City's Fringe,. [Bloomfield Hills, Mich.]: Cranbrook Institute of Science, 1968. Print
Wilson, Edward O. The Future of Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002. Print.
"Community-supported Agriculture." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 04 Nov. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Supported_Agriculture>.
"'Organic Farming Crucial to People's Safety'" CityJournal.in. Web. 04 Nov. 2011. <http://www.cityjournal.in/Newspaper/20111105/Metro/Metro_3.html>.
"Legislation Introduced In Congress To Support Local And Organic Food." Enewspf.com. 2006. Web. 03 Nov. 2011. <http://www.enewspf.com/latest-news/science-a-environmental/28536-legislation-introduced-in-congress-to-support-local-and-organic-food.html>.
The Greenhorns. Web. 05 Dec. 2011. <http://www.thegreenhorns.net/>.
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