The Benefits of Community Supported Agriculture
We hope that this information will help you make a thoughtful decision regarding becoming a member of Clear Creek Farm CSA. If you would like additional information call or email and we will be happy to help. Thank you again for your interest in our CSA.
1. Very fresh produce: your share will be harvested the day of delivery.
The average "fresh" produce in a grocery store is 7-14 days old, has been selected for ease of picking and shelf-life, and has traveled approximately 1,500 miles, losing nutrition and taste along the way. CSAs generally deliver within 24 hours of picking, and most use organic growing methods.
2. Your money goes directly to a Southern Illinois farm.
Family-scale farm operations need support. Since 1981 more than 620,000 productive farms have disappeared either bought by larger farms or "developed". In a conventional market system, only 25 cents of every food dollar goes to farmers, where with a CSA the entire dollar goes to the farmer.
3. Your family will be introduced to new varieties of produces.
Most supermarkets only offer 1-2 different kinds of any given vegetable. CSAs typically supply many different varieties of vegetables, including hard-to-find "heirloom" varieties. We raise many of these open pollinated "heirloom" vegetables, saving the seed from season to season to help keep rare types of vegetable crops viable and ensure the food security of our region (and they taste so good!). All the seed we purchase come from seed exchanges and independent seed dealers who refuse to carry seed produced by corporate agri-businesses that are currently suing farmers over "intellectual property rights infringement" when pollen from a patented variety fertilizes a neighboring field.
4. A better understanding of your food.
Knowing where and by whom you food is grown will make you feel better about the food you eat. Your CSA shares are a direct connection to local and seasonal produce. The phrase "community-supported agriculture" may sound more like an ideal than a way of operating a farm. Actually, it's both. Farmers using this model call their operations CSAs, which means both the way of marketing their products and the participation and shared risk-taking on the part of the consumers to whom they are marketing.
In general, a CSA involves selling shares of the anticipated end products to a defined group of consumers for a set period of time. Share owners make a commitment to support the farm throughout the season, assuming the costs, risks and bounty of growing food along with the farmers. In a CSA vegetable farm, for example, the share owner won’t get any money back if the broccoli fails. However, the season may be extra generous in some other vegetables so the deficit can be made up.
