At its heart, a CSA farming operation is a combined effort between a farm and a community of supporters ("harvest shareholders" or "members") that creates a direct relationship between the production and consumption of food: Each season the harvest shareholders provide the money (and sometimes other resources) needed for the farm to operate by purchasing a "harvest share" of the season's harvest. Operating costs include seeds, labor, growing supplies and soil-building amendments. By making this commitment a harvest shareholder assumes with the farmer the risks and the rewards of growing the food they will eat. In turn, the farm distributes to the harvest shareholders the entire production of the farm: a wide variety of seasonally harvested fresh produce, usually on a weekly basis, throughout the growing season(s).

The CSA model is an economically viable way for small scale farmers to produce a small amount of a wide variety of high quality vegetables in an earth-friendly way. CSAs foster responsible relationships between the grower, the consumer, the food, and the land on which the food is grown.

This text used with permission from the

Oregon Sustainable Agriculture Land Trust