Community supported agriculture (CSA) began as a year-long direct-marketing commitment between farmers and consumers. With local food in high demand, “on-line hubs are using sophisticated distribution technology to snap into the food chain, often using CSA to describe what they deliver,” says the New York Times, some of it is neither local nor direct from the farm, such as olive oil or tropical fruit.
“The term (CSA) is not regulated in most states so companies can define it as they wish,” says the Times. “Depending on how and where these new businesses buy their produce, consumers can receive all the benefits of CSA membership, while the farmers get only a fraction.” With more competitors, some farmers say fewer people are buying CSA memberships from them. CSAs gained traction as a way for city dwellers to assure a weekly delivery of freshly harvested food and for farmers to get a cash infusion early in the year, from selling memberships, to help defray planting-time expenses.
The distribution hubs, with names such as Local Roots, may ease the burden on growers by picking up the food at the farm or premium prices. But they also blur the definitions. “They are absolutely in competition with us,” farmer Ben Shute told the Times. “There are only a certain number of people who will buy food this way.”
The founder of Local Roots NYC says to be successful, shopping for local food must be as similar to one-stop shopping as possible. Says the Times, “[I]n interviews with farmers, policy makers and entrepreneurs, all parties agreed that for fragile local food systems to strengthen, consumers will have to be offered more choice and control over what they eat than is possible with a traditional CSA.”