While vacationing in the Finger Lakes Region, I discovered what could be a new direction in the Community Supported Agriculture movement.
What is “Community Supported Agriculture”?
According to the Wikipedia definition, “Community Supported Agriculture” is a form of an alternative food network. It is a socio-economic model of agriculture and food distribution. A CSA consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farming operation where the growers and consumers share the risks and benefits of food production. CSAs usually consist of a system of weekly delivery or pick-up of vegetables and fruit, in a vegetable box scheme, and sometimes includes dairy products and meat.
CSAs generally focus on the production of high quality foods for a local community, often using organic or biodynamic farming methods, and a shared risk membership–marketing structure.”
Philadelphia boasts a number of urban CSAs: “GreenGrows”, “Henry Got Crops”, the Schuylkill Center CSA, etc… all of them attached to one of the area urban farm.
Imagine…
Now imagine that instead of getting a fraction of your food from a CSA, you would able to get all the basic food you need (milk, cream, yogurt, cheese, butter, meat – beef, chicken and pork – freshly baked bread, flours, beans, grains, seeds, vegetable and root vegetables), in any quantity you want. You would get all your food from a farm that is growing organic vegetables and where animals are free-range and grass fed.
You would come pick up as much as you want every Friday all year round.
Sounds incredible??!!
Whole Diet Farms
Well, this kind of Community Supported Agriculture is called “Whole Diet Farms“. Whole Diet Farms combine the community engagement of the
classical CSA, the commitment from the farmers to provide food covering the whole spectrum of the human diet and the harvest of the farm is owned by the members and this model of farming is emerging. Nationwide beside Sawyer Farm in Worthington MA, Howling Wolf Farm near Blairstown, New Jersey and Essex Farms upstate New-York, there is a total of five farms nationwide using this model.
Essex Farms was the precursor, initiator of this form of CSA. Essex Farms currently feeds 170 members. Most of the pictures you see, illustrating this article are from Essex Farms.
classical CSA, the commitment from the farmers to provide food covering the whole spectrum of the human diet and the harvest of the farm is owned by the members and this model of farming is emerging. Nationwide beside Sawyer Farm in Worthington MA, Howling Wolf Farm near Blairstown, New Jersey and Essex Farms upstate New-York, there is a total of five farms nationwide using this model.Essex Farms was the precursor, initiator of this form of CSA. Essex Farms currently feeds 170 members. Most of the pictures you see, illustrating this article are from Essex Farms.
Essex Farms uses draft horses to power its CSA.
The Rodale Institute published a number of articles on Essex Farms:
http://www.newenglandvfc.org/pdf_proceedings/2009/EssexGHPM.pdf
Costs
How much does it cost to be a member of a Whole Diet Farm?
At Sawyer Farm, membership for one adult cost $3,000/year. The second adult for the same household will pay $2,500.
Sounds like a lot and consider your yearly overall grocery bill . For instance my household spends more that $700/month on our household grocery bill. A membership for two adults at Sawyer Farm is about $460 per month. Less than $500/month to eat healthy and organic food, to me it looks like a deal.
At Sawyer Farm, membership for one adult cost $3,000/year. The second adult for the same household will pay $2,500.
Sounds like a lot and consider your yearly overall grocery bill . For instance my household spends more that $700/month on our household grocery bill. A membership for two adults at Sawyer Farm is about $460 per month. Less than $500/month to eat healthy and organic food, to me it looks like a deal.
Vision
What if… there were a series of “whole diet farms” around Philadelphia and why not in Philadelphia that would fill the needs of parts of the urban population and create new green jobs. Any takers?
