Community Supported Agriculture

Thirty years ago, two different farms in bordering New England states forever changed the farmer-to-consumer relationship.

As producers, they realized the importance of bringing clean, healthy food to the public, but also understood that meeting the demand of all the people, particularly those living in urban locales, was nearly impossible. Over the years, as the number of consumers dependent on a particular farm’s harvest grew, the proportion between what a farm could provide and how many people it could provide for became skewed. Concerned that the financial and physical demands on the land would grow as well, farmers sought a viable solution. To overcome this potential disconnect, Temple-Wilton Community Farm in Wilton, New Hampshire, and Indian Line Farm in South Egremont, Massachusetts, adopted a radical new concept in farming in which producers and consumers from a local community form an economic partnership for their mutual benefit.

While this progressive idea had taken successful root on a smaller scale decades earlier in Europe and Japan, the principals of both American farms loosely based their interpretations on the European ideal, with its traditions in anthroposophy and biodynamic agriculture. As they endeavored to adopt their own unique practices, the concept of community supported agriculture (CSA) was created and a movement was born. Although both farms are credited with pioneering the CSA concept simultaneously in the mid-1980s, they approached the movement with distinct philosophies, developing two varied models that are still thriving today.

Rooted in Tradition

Years before CSA found its bearings on this continent, farmers in Europe – and even some here in America dating as far back as 1945 – were implementing the ideals of Rudolf Steiner’s biodynamic farming, which initially was considered the cornerstone of the CSA movement. A prominent Austrian philosopher and scientist in the 1920s, Steiner believed that the spiritual and the physical worlds were connected, and that nature is a living and self-sustaining organism that unites material, biological, and spiritual elements. His philosophy, which takes the fundamentals of an organic lifestyle to a higher level, describes agriculture as an interconnected whole, with animals, plants, and people creating a unit in which none can thrive without the others.

Experimenting with these ideals on a farm just outside Hamburg, Germany, in the 1970s and early 1980s, Trauger Groh was so intrigued by the experience that when he began to make plans with Lincoln Geiger and Anthony Graham for their new endeavor – Temple-Wilton Community Farm – they explored this approach. Just 80 miles away in Massachusetts, this same scenario was playing out with discussions among the principals of what would soon be their inaugural CSA founded at Indian Line Farm. Like Groh, Swiss immigrant Jan Vander Tuin worked on a biodynamic farm in Switzerland. Moved by the experience, he brought the philosophy to the United States, and discussed its viability with Robyn Van En and Susan Witt.

The trio, led by Tuin, who is credited with coining the phrase “community supported agriculture,” adopted the CSA concept slowly, first by undertaking a project with a small apple orchard in which they sold 30 shares their first season, before embarking on their CSA Garden at Great Barrington in 1986. The garden, which was created on leased land from Van En’s Indian Line Farm and began as a three-year shareholder lease, continued to thrive until 1990, when the trio parted ways and Van En continued to operate a CSA through Indian Line Farm.

Lincoln Geiger and cow

Lincoln Geiger walks with Jewel the cow at Temple-Wilton Community Farm. Along with Trauger Groh and Anthony Graham, Geiger founded Temple-Wilton Community Farm in 1986; it is the oldest continually operating CSA in the country. Credit: Photo by Rumi Geiger

In New Hampshire, the pioneers who founded Temple-Wilton’s CSA in 1986 continue to find success with their model, giving it the distinction of being the oldest continually operating CSA in the country. “It just started at the right moment and under the right set of circumstances,” said Geiger, who describes himself as a farmer, a visionary, and a nurturer of one of our greatest natural assets: the Earth. “When we introduced Temple-Wilton’s CSA philosophy, which was perhaps a bit avant-garde for the time, we were fortunate that we had a number of like-minded people in the community who saw the benefits of our approach.”

Unlike many CSAs – the commonly accepted name that refers to the financial commitment between farmer and consumer and the subsequent sharing of the harvest – Temple-Wilton garners financial support through pledges instead of annual shares. From the onset, Geiger, Graham, and Groh, who maintained the notion that all people are farmers and in turn must farm to survive, decided to take this ideal to the next level by asking the members of their CSA to commit to the overall operation of the farm.

During the farm’s annual budget meeting, the total costs for operating the farm are presented to members, who pledge a level of financial support that is often based on their income and the level of commitment that is comfortable for them. Although one member may pledge only a few hundred dollars for their share of the season’s harvest, another could perhaps pledge in the thousands. Both members retain equal share in the harvest even though their level of financial support differs. As the produce is harvested throughout the season, members can take as much as they’d like without worrying about predetermined limits or prepackaged baskets. “This idea was pretty radical even from the start,” Geiger admitted. “We were at the tail end of the hippie days and the baby boomer generation was pretty receptive to alternative ways of thinking, so we thought it was worth a shot. It’s a philosophy that forces people to disconnect the money from the food and see food as a right, not as a commodity.”

Indian Line Farm’s CSA adopted a different philosophy from the start in regard to membership, and it’s one that a great majority of farms across the country employ today. Here, members purchase a share of the harvest, which provides them with a selection of fresh, seasonal produce each week during the farm’s growing season. In some instances, members have their choice of produce, but are limited by the amount they can take so there is ample supply for every member. In other scenarios, members pick up a pre-filled basket with their weekly produce. While the quantity of produce may vary from week to week, members generally take home enough to sufficiently supplement their family’s meals for the week.

CSA shares

Photos of several weeks’ worth of shares from a CSA in Colorado reveal the variety of locally grown produce that CSA members often enjoy. Credit: Photo courtesy DIY wine dine home garden

Like many farms, Indian Line Farm allows its members to customize their shares based on their specific needs and desires. Options include regular shares, summer shares, fruit shares, flower shares, and even working shares, which allow members to offset the cost of their regular share by working a set number of hours on the farm during the season. Depending on the type of share, the cost can vary from a few hundred dollars per season to nearly $1,000.

From an economic standpoint, CSA operators don’t generally concern themselves with how much money they can make in a given season since they are wholly funded through member support. Instead, operators look to their fields with a critical eye and a question of whether they have enough to feed all of their people. This mind-set, although refreshing, is extraordinary for such a capitalistic society, but it’s one that CSA pioneers are proud to preach. Perhaps just as contrary is the concept of diversifying their crops instead of specializing in a few chosen varieties.

At Temple-Wilton Community Farm, for example, this act of diversification stems from years of honing their skills and studying the preferences of all their members. As they blazed the trail for this groundbreaking movement, the farmers had the opportunity to try different things and learn from their mistakes, providing other growers who were new to the CSA concept with a virtual operating handbook. “At the heart of the CSA is a careful balance between what people want to eat and what we as farmers can grow on the farm,” Geiger explained. “It can be tricky since different crops require different soil. The dynamics between growing the food and consuming the food is a real study in human behavior, and in terms of the CSA, it’s constantly fine-tuned.”

From the onset, both CSA models, which were spearheaded by the pioneers, have been successful and have shared many commonalities. In both scenarios, membership is capped, allowing the farm to produce enough to satisfy the needs of all its members. In addition, members and farmers are partners, sharing the risks and benefits of annual food production. If the crop is stricken due to weather or infestation, the farmer does not shoulder the financial loss alone. Likewise, if the growing season is abundantly successful, both partners benefit from the bounty. “The best thing about the CSA in particular is that you get to know all these individuals and the actual process of providing food for them becomes very personal,” said Elizabeth Keen, who, along with her husband, Alex Thorp, has been the co-owner of Indian Line Farm since they purchased it in 1999. “We have a connection that has literally grown from the ground up, and I am committed to fostering it and seeing it thrive.”

For Keen, who was not born in a farming family or even “called” to the profession, the opportunity to not only run, but own, Indian Line Farm came about purely by happenstance. By the mid-1990s, the farm had lost some momentum and when Van En died suddenly from an asthma attack in January 1997, Indian Line Farm was no longer growing crops, let alone operating its CSA. Stunned community members were fearful the farm would be sold to the highest bidder, so they encouraged Keen and Thorp to work the land and revitalize the CSA.

As it turns out, the couple had just finished apprenticeships at a nearby CSA farm and were considering their options for the future. Keen, who had met Van En just prior to her death – not in a farming capacity, but when she helped her prepare for a CSA conference – was familiar with the farm and its history. Soon Keen and Thorp were leasing the farm, and now, nearly 20 years later, they have restored Indian Line Farm to its former state, reestablishing the CSA, reconnecting local consumers to the bounty of the earth, and becoming a role model for sustainability as Van En always envisioned. According to a passage written in Basic Formula to Create Community Supported Agriculture, Van En wrote, “… the main goal … of these community supported projects is to develop participating farms to their highest ecologic potential and to develop a network that will encourage and allow other farms to become involved.”

Temple Wilton farm yard

The farm yard at Temple-Wilton Community Farm. CSA participants partake of the vegetables grown as well as milk from the farm’s cows. The farm also produces eggs, cheese, yogurt, and meat, though CSA members purchase those items separately. Credit: Photo by Lincoln Geiger

Today, thousands of farms from one end of the country to the other have active and thriving CSAs. While the exact number is hard to pinpoint, many experts estimate the number to be between 6,500 and 13,000. With more growers participating in this farm-to-table movement – and more consumers choosing to serve their families fresh-from-the-farm produce – CSAs are flourishing. People living in large, metropolitan areas in particular have contributed to the movement’s success. Health-conscious and eco-minded, many city dwellers have rejected fruits and vegetables grown in the conventional sense, opting instead for organic produce and eagerly joining local CSAs that have cropped up in and around their cities.

This desire for a healthier alternative is exactly what propelled the movement to immediate success. During the early 1980s, when the food industry was in a great state of flux, with fresh, local farm products giving way to imported foods shipped from great distances, America’s heartland was steadily losing ground to urban development. Farmers began to abandon their farms for more lucrative professions and consumers were left with fewer options for sourcing food locally. Taking a stand against this undesirable wave of commercialism, the pioneers of the CSA movement approached the basics of farming with a fresh perspective, and subsequently revitalized the local agricultural scene.

With its origins in biodynamic agriculture, the CSA movement is fundamentally rooted in sustainability, with advocates promoting agricultural stewardship and environmentally conscious growing practices. “We like to say that this way of farming and sharing the gifts of nature in a sustainable fashion is organic up to a level where we are actually growing an organic community,” Geiger explained. “This is a symbiotic engagement all the way down to the root hairs. Just as the plants’ roots reach into the earth, nature reaches out to us – from humus to human – and the relationship becomes a full circle. Nature gives freely of her life and grows to become each one of us: we the people, we the creatures, and we the living earth. Our farming philosophy, and, at this point, my personal passion, is to connect people back to the earth and to nature and help them see that they truly belong here. It’s not only about promoting healthier practices, but also reconnecting humans with the rhythms of nature.”