Local food subscription services grow in popularity

By MARY PEPITONE
Special to The Star

Community Supported Agriculture started more than a decade ago as a grassroots movement to eat locally. Today the movement continues to grow to serve consumers across the metro area.Also known by its acronym, a CSA is a subscription service. Consumers invest in local farms by purchasing “shares” before the growing season begins. In return for their investment CSA subscribers receive a weekly delivery of freshly harvested, often organically grown and produced food, including fruits, vegetables, meats, cheese, eggs and/or honey.

“A CSA can really knit a community together. People who participate in a CSA have a relationship with the farmer and their food,” says Season Burnett, director of the Kansas City CSA Coalition. “Not only is it good for the farmer and the consumer, CSAs also benefit the local economy and environment, since money spent on locally grown food stays closer to home.”

CSAs feed the locavore movement — people who strive to eat food grown within 100 miles of their dinner table — but they’re also fostering a common-sense approach to eating. Local produce, harvested at its peak and consumed within 24 hours of being picked, is more nutrient-dense. And most consumers say fresher food just tastes better.

People appear to be hungry for the opportunity to personally know the farmer who grows what they eat, says Craig Volland, a long-time Kansas City Food Circle member and event coordinator for the Eat Local farmers exhibition, which will be the next two weekends. (On the cover.)

When the expo was organized 11 years ago, only a dozen farmers participated. Now that number has grown to 50. Last year 1,600 local consumers attended the expo to learn more about CSAs.

“Participating in a CSA is like hiring your very own farmer or group of farmers,” Volland says. “Accordingly, one needs to ask lots of questions before making a decision about a certain CSA.” (See Know Your Farmer box at right.)

Prices vary from farmer to farmer. Some ask for a membership fee and weekly dues. Others ask for money up front for operating expenses or to buy seeds. Some CSAs even require sweat equity in the form of pulling weeds and helping with harvesting.

No matter what the cost, advocates say one of the greatest benefits is cultivating a unique relationship with fresh food and the people who help grow it.

Many CSAs are run by small farmers who focus on produce. But Diana Endicott, the farm-to-market coordinator for the Good Natured Family Farm Alliance based in Bronson, Kan., is bringing the CSA concept to local grocery stores.

Endicott, who represents more than 150 family farms, has forged a partnership with 12 area Hen House Markets to distribute weekly bags of seasonal produce. As part of the Buy Fresh, Buy Local initiative ( www.foodroutes.org), the CSA fed 1,500 people last year.

“We look at it like agriculture-supported community, in which we provide an added service to local grocery stores,” Endicott says. “This system of distribution works well. As farmers, we continue to do what we do best, which is producing high-quality products. Grocery stores continue to do what they do best, which is serve the customers.”

Although consumers may not get to know their farmer as intimately through a CSA grocery store set-up, easy access for weekly distribution makes this an appealing model to many. It also reminds participants that membership in a CSA is a partnership with farmers — during bumper crops or in times of bust because of unfavorable growing conditions.

The face of family farms is changing, too. Burnett, of Kansas City CSA Coalition, says CSAs have grown to include urban farmers, such as Greeley Gardens near Quindaro Boulevard in Kansas City, Kan., with produce grown on vacant lots.

“Not only are CSAs a method of distributing healthy food that sustain us as humans,” Burnett says, “but it also helps sustain and provides stability for the local family farmer. Everyone can reap the rewards.”