Community supported agriculture (CSA) is about reconnecting people with the farm on which their food is grown. There are lots of different ways that CSA can work. Normally, local people will invest in their local farm in some way in return for a share of the harvest. CSA is a partnership between farmers and consumers where the responsibilities and rewards of farming are shared.

Fundamental to CSA is an understanding of mutual support between farmers and those who consume their produce. As CSA farms are directly accountable to their consumer members they strive to provide fresh, high-quality food, typically using organic or biodynamic farming methods. CSA members often commit in advance, in cash or kind (working on the farm), to buying their food directly from the CSA farm.

The benefits of CSA

There are so many benefits from being part of a CSA. Benefits for you and your family, for the farmer/grower, for the community, for the environment and for the local economy.

The CSA approach offers multiple benefits:

• Consumers benefit from receiving fresh food from a known source
• they improve their understanding about food production and the real costs involved
• reconnect with the land
• improve their knowledge of seasonality
• learn about new and traditional varieties of fruit, veg and herbs
• have access to a farm as a resource for education, work and leisure
• experience improved wellbeing through better diet, physical work, socialising and spending time in the countryside
• have a sense of belonging to a community
• can influence the local landscape
• help a farm make the transition to more sustainable farming methods

• a more secure income which improves business planning and time to concentrate on farming
• a higher and fairer return for their products by selling direct to public and cutting out the middle man
• the potential to raise working capital and financial support from local communities
• elevated status in the eyes of consumers through putting 'the farmer's face on food'
• increased involvement in the local community; the opportunity to respond directly to consumers' needs
• and the opportunity to communicate and co-operate more with other farmers

• improved social networks, social responsibility and a sense of community and trust;
• the environmental benefits of fewer 'food miles', less packaging, ecologically sensitive farming with improved animal welfare
• a local economy enhanced by higher employment, more local processing, local consumption and a re-circulation of money through 'local spend'
• the local tangible evidence of the return of local distinctiveness and care for local land
• a shift in attitudes to food and farming and therefore a shift in 'food culture'