Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has become a popular way for consumers to buy local, seasonal food directly from local farmers in a way that offers consumers with regular harvests of fresh produce, while providing farmers much needed financial support.
CSAs are offered by the following Memphis Farmers Market vendors:
CSA Vendors at the Market
What is CSA?
- CSA is an arrangement whereby members or ‘shareholders’ of a farm pledge in advance to cover the anticipated costs of the farm operation and the farmer’s salary. In return, they receive a share in the farm’s harvest throughout the growing season. In the traditional model of CSA, growers and consumers provide mutual support and share the risks and benefits of food production.
- By selling directly to members who have provided the farmer with working capital in advance, growers may receive better prices for their crops and gain some financial security.
- CSA is a relatively new socio-economic model of food production, sales, and distribution aimed at both increasing the quality of food and the quality of care given the land, plants and animals – while substantially reducing potential food losses and financial risks for the producers.
How CSA Benefits Our Farmers
- By direct sales to community members, who have provided the farmer with working capital in advance, growers receive better prices for their crops, gain some financial security, and are relieved of much of the burden of marketing.
- By providing a guaranteed market through prepaid annual sales, consumers essentially help finance farming operations. This allows farmers to not only focus on quality growing, it can also somewhat level the playing field in a food market that favors usually large-scale, industrialized agriculture over local food. Vegetables and fruit are the most common CSA crops.
- CSA may minimize some of the negative effects of more conventional systems of food production and distribution because it involves less chemical use, less soil erosion, less food packaging, fewer food miles and more crop and ecosystem diversity.
- CSA is different from buying clubs and home delivery services, where the consumer buys a specific product at a predetermined price. CSA members purchase only what the farm is able to successfully grow and harvest, in essence CSA members share some of the growing risk with the farmer. If the crop is not successful, the CSA member will share the burden of the crop failure by not receiving produce for the season or receiving lower quality produce. CSA members are also more actively involved in the growing and distribution process, through shared newsletters and recipes, farm visits, farm work-days, advance purchases of shares, and picking up their shares.
How CSA Benefits Our Community and Market
- CSA can help revitalize local economies by helping to retain more capital in the community and increasing interaction and understanding between urbanites and rural residents. Additionally, CSA may spur local, civic involvement by energizing environmental initiatives, preservation of open and rural landscapes and other community-building activities.
To find out about the specific CSAs offered by Memphis Farmers Market vendors, contact the vendors directly who sell at the market.