CSA practitioners hail the concept as a way to revitalize the deteriorating family farm, to promote organic agriculture and to help consumers create their own food systems in the increasingly impersonal and detached world of agribusiness and supermarkets. Jan Vandertuin, a pioneer CSA organizer in this country, describes CSA as a way of life rather than a way to make a lot of money. With CSA, the emphasis is on community. The consumers feel they are owners. Instead of handing over ownership and operations to the farmer, CSA brings people together around one thing, food.
Business is almost secondary.
Currently there are an estimated 400 CSA projects in the US, but at the rate they are multiplying, there should be about 1,000 CSAs by the year 2000, according to another CSA pioneer, Robyn Van En. Generally, CSAs find that consumers are less concerned about price than they are about freshness, nutritional content, freedom from chemical contamination and supporting their local growers. Since customers pay in advance, this guarantees the farmer a market for everything he or she grows. Advance payment creates working capital at planting time so the farmer can purchase equipment and supplies as needed. The farmer gets a paycheck weekly through the season, and at some CSA farms the farmer also receives health and life insurance, vacation and sick days.