Community-Supported Agriculture

Community-supported agriculture (CSA) connects farmers with local consumers in a mutually beneficial agreement that creates a sense of community. To start a CSA collective, a group of buyers in an urban setting forms an association with a local farm, usually organic, and agrees to buy shares of the farm’s crop for the growing season. The buyers pay in advance for their shares (or futures) to cover the farmer’s costs; then during the harvest season the farmer delivers whatever was cut that week to a designated pickup point in the city.