The conference detailed the CSA concept, in which consumers purchase subscriptions from nearby farms, allowing farmers to plan ahead to meet the needs of prepaid customers. Andrew Lorand, a longtime CSA consultant and agriculture teacher at the Sacramento Waldorf School, began the day's events with an overview of CSAs in the United States, their history and some fundamental principles. Both farmers and consumers share in the risk and the bounty of the harvest. Consumers receive weekly boxes of fresh, seasonal, local produce, often produced organically.
Farmers have a guaranteed market and income for working capital.
According to Lorand, besides the concept of shared risk, one of the most appealing things about a subscription farm is that there is direct, personal contact between growers and consumers. It is a socioeconomic model that can be adapted for any community. He noted that today, there are more than 400 CSAs around the country and the number is growing rapidly. They discussed the differences in their CSAs, their reasons for beginning subscription farming, marketing strategies for different clientele, farm production organization, the preparation of produce boxes, educational and communication strategies they have developed with their shareholders, and the challenges of CSAs. Each CSA representative described a different method of dealing with shareholders depending upon the type and number of members, the percentage contribution the CSA income makes to their entire farming operation and other factors.