Local Food Trip - part 2

Written - 29 June, 2008

The wild, western trip is getting me further down the rabbit hole of food politics and grassroots agricultural initiatives in Canada. In British Columbia, we went to the now cooperative Mecca of Nelson, where the largely urban community has ensured that local farmers are being provided for through community supported agriculture or CSA’s. Though still a developing model, CSA’s represent a genuine hope for community and rural pride, while generating funds for farmer’s pocketbooks.

A CSA is unique because customers and farmers enter into a relationship where both take on the inherent risks of agriculture. CSA’s sell crop shares cooperatively and customers determine the number of shares required to meet their personal needs. The benefit to farmers is that share prices are negotiated collectively, where a reasonable wage for producers is factored into costs. Further, farmers are guaranteed the share value, regardless of crop failure or market fluctuations.

The customer benefits because they are able to make requests for produce at the start of a season and customize their share. The resulting crop biodiversity ensures that the farm operations involved will have production of some crops, even if others fail. All food is distributed equally amongst shares; therefore, the community, not individual, shares in bounty or failure. Economically, years of bounty represent a significant investment and customers are insolated from food price inflation during years of decline because of diversity.

The farmers we spoke with were overwhelmed by the support these models had brought to their operations. Some were near tears when speaking about prices that considered their living needs rather than corporate profit. Also, CSA’s are transparent and members are encouraged to visit operations during the growing season to learn more about their food, strengthen relations and reduce the isolation that farmers feel from customers in centralized systems.

CSA’s require a commitment from several farmers in order to be viable. The workload for an individual would be too great and the impact of crop failure magnified with small numbers of operations. However, having producers come together can be difficult given the competitive culture that industrial agriculture has encouraged. Nonetheless, recognition by urban residents of the importance of farmers can make cooperation easier to facilitate and reinvigorate rural culture and pride.

Importantly, the farmers involved in CSA’s were positive and saw them as a tool to allow the next generation of farmers to make a go of it. Perhaps there is hope for rural culture after all.