Design out waste for food security with CSAs
Part of the Community Resilience series
By Keondra Jenkins, UNC Master of Public Administration student
The agriculture industry faces an endless list of challenges. Scarce resources, climate change, depleted land and food waste are just some of the challenges that farmers face each year. COVID-19 placed increased and unexpected pressure on our food systems. Food banks are overrun, certain grocery store items are still scarce, restaurants and many other businesses are closed – obtaining food can seem more difficult than ever. These closures are especially hard on small farmers. With this disturbance in the current model of producing and selling produce, more food is being wasted. Some farmers have resorted to dumping milk and plowing over crops because restaurants, hotels, and schools that typically purchase large quantities of food are closed, drastically increasing food waste. However, despite these incredibly uncertain times, farms participating in community-supported agriculture (CSA) are managing to thrive.
Community-supported agriculture is a system that directly connects the food producer to consumers by allowing the consumers to invest in the harvest of a specific farm or group of farms. This model allows producers and consumers to share the risks of farming because the consumers pay for crops at the beginning of the season. The following are just a few reasons why consumers might be turning to CSAs during COVID-19:
Fear of going to grocery stores
Food shortages at grocery stores
Locally grown
Not handled by many people
Feels safer than farmers' markets because there is less person-to-person interaction during pickup
Ten Mothers Farm has found success with this model and is working harder than ever to provide for the community during COVID19. I had the opportunity to speak to Vera Fabian, a cofounder of Ten Mothers Farm in Hillsborough, NC. This CSA established its roots in 2015 with the support of 34 CSA members. Today, Ten Mothers Farm has nearly 200 CSA members and a waitlist that has grown from 80 to over 400 people during the pandemic. This success was far from easy. Vera says that when you are a small-scale farmer, the odds are stacked against you. There’s a lot of risk because of how variable the environment and market can be. Vera attributes a great deal of their success to their relationship with their customers. Ten Mothers Farm has a strong social media presence, which has allowed them to connect with customers directly. In addition to direct correspondence with their CSA members, weekly posts include CSA shares, views of the farm, farmers hard at work, recipes, and more.
We can't discuss food insecurity and community resilience without discussing equity. Equity, access, and affordability are all values of our circular economy model. During my discussion with Vera, she mentioned that CSAs are not a new phenomenon. CSAs are rooted in black history. As early as the 1960s and 1970s, the concept of community-supported agriculture was being developed by a pioneer of sustainable agriculture, Booker T. Whatley. With a passion for "smaller and smarter" farming, Whatley urged black farmers to grow high-value crops and market them to a loyal group of customers who would harvest the crops themselves and pay for the privilege of doing as a part of a Clientele Membership Club. Clientele Membership Clubs are the foundation of what CSAs are today.
Today, we must continue to ensure that CSAs are accessible to everyone. Sliding scale prices, payment plans, allowing CSA members to subsidize the costs of new members, and Whatley's model of allowing consumers to pay through hours worked on the farm are just a few ways to make CSA more accessible to those who need fresh, local produce most.
To conclude, I want to emphasize the ways CSAs support the circular economy model:
CSAs design waste out of the system because when food is paid for ahead of time, there is less risk of overproduction and wasted food. Additionally, locally grown food decreases the dependence on major transit to get food to consumers. With more food directly bought by and delivered to consumers, less food will be wasted.
Locally grown food is fresher. Freshly picked fruits and vegetables at peak ripeness are the most nutrient-dense. This gets the maximum value from produce.
Ten Mothers Farm and many other CSAs are organic and handpick their produce. By not tilling and not using a tractor, they nurture fertile soil, thus, regenerating nature.
I want to give a special thank you to Vera Fabian of Ten Mother Farm for the contributions her interview gave to this piece. If you are interested in learning more about Ten Mothers Farm or joining their waitlist, you can find them here. Additionally, if you are interested in discovering other CSAs in the Triangle or beyond, you can search here.
