Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

Farming is arguably one of the most seasonal industries in existence - the success of a farmer is completely dependent on the weather conditions, length of the growing season and occurence of any storms. Therefore, a farmer must make the bulk of their annual income in a few short months, the summer months. This can understandibly put considerable strain on farmers to have sufficient cash flow to allow them to conduct their business throughout the year. Think for instance of how much money must go out in the spring for seed, for seeding trays, irrigation pipes and so forth to set up the fields for the season with very little coming in.

To curb this cash flow dilemma, Community Supported Agriculure, also known as CSA, was brough to life. CSA is a means of giving farmers money in advance of the growing season by purchasing 'shares' of the crops that will be sold at market each week. Essentially, a customer signs up for a CSA, at Klippers either a large ($40.00) or small ($25.00) share for 20 weeks, and pays the farmer in full for their share prior to the commencement of the season. In doing so, the CSA customer is guaranteed to receive produce everyweek for 20 weeks, but also takes on some of the crop-failure risk with the farmer.

Benefits to the consumer are that they get priority on the variety of products harvested each week and they also are guaranteed their food no matter when they show up at market to pick up their box. (Klippers delivers their CSAs to any of their four markets.) This means, customers don't need to rush to the market at 9.00 am to make sure they are getting their zucchinis right now.

Downfalls for the consumer are that they don't get to decide what produce they receive weekly, and they are taking on risk with the farmer if there is a crop failure, they don't get their money back.

Benefits for the farmer is that they are receiving much needed cash in a slow time and are also not taking on all the risk each season for their success, so they can hopefully continue to farm in the future even if they were to experience a crop failure.

Downfalls for the farmer are that the CSA organization is labour intensive to put together the boxes and bags, and often times CSA customers are not fully aware of the details of a CSA (esp. regarding the risk and lack of choice.)

This year, to curb the labour issue for one, Klippers Organics have sold CSA gift certificates to consumers in place of shares. How this works, is that individuals can buy their gift certificates in advance and receive an extra 10% (ie buy $500 and receive $550 of gift certificates) for their commitment. As a bonus, the gift certificates can be used to buy products from Klippers at the winter markets or into the subsequent season should the consumer not be able to use them by the end of the 2011 season.

Also, hopefully the gift certificates will allow consumers the flexibility to buy exactly what they want for their share, however they now too are subject to getting to the market early to get the selection of products available.

I am in charge of organizing the CSAs at the farm. This means that I will email the customers an outline of the products they get each week accompanied by some recipes for less common foods as well as answer any queries. I also organize the boxes and bags at the farm when we are packing for market.

So far so good!