The Rural Voice, 1993-07, Page 31thought this might be a way of
getting started. He agreed to allow
the use of part of his land and his
large farm shed in return for a share
of the garden's harvest.
For the first couple of years he
helped out in the garden and as he
watched the CSA progress, became a
real enthusiast. In the third year,
when the person looking after the
garden had to leave, he took over the
gardening operation.
Budd is actually an employee of
the group, getting paid a salary for his
work. The salary is negotiated each
year before the growing season starts.
As such he is guaranteed his input
costs and his own income
in advance.
There are no
guarantees for the
members of the group. If
there is bumper crop,
each gets his share of the
surplus. If there is a crop
failure, they share the
pain. Still, says Budd, the
members get a good deal.
He keeps track of what
people get as part of their
share and compares it to
the prices at the
supermarket for the same
produce. Even with last
year's unfavourable
conditions which he
estimates reduced yields
by 40 per cent, members
could rent some of this land, put
together a group of consumers from
the city, have them pay their
membership fee and share up front,
and only have to invest in a minimal
amount of equipment. A few years of
this can allow a farmer to build up a
nest egg.
And there is a demand for this
kind of operation, particularly in
larger centres. Dan Wiens, a farmer
on the southeast side of Winnipeg
called a meeting of interested city
dwellers before last year's season
began. "We got some good publicity
in the Winnipeg paper and within a
day and a half we had over 300 phone
calls. Virtually all those people had
their cheque books open."
Eventually Wiens ended up with
200 families who paid for their share
of the crop he raised. Since then he's
been travelling across the the prairies
spreading the gospel. "If just 20 per
cent of the population of Winnipeg
were to purchase food for 14 weeks
— the rest of the time Safeway's got
them — if they were to purchase their
vegetables, poultry, eggs and other
things through a direct marketing
scheme or shared farming, that would
create 1000 farms. This is not
replacing farms, it is just utilizing
available land — we are also trying
to organize land trusts
around this. If this is
hurting anyone it is not
people on the prairies."
The other aspect of
CSAs that is causing
excitement is the
renewal of contact
between the consumer
and the grower of the
food. There's a new
respect on the part of
consumers for the work
that goes into growing
food, Wiens says.
"When you go into
Safeway and buy
cabbage for 10 cents a
pound you don't see the
farmer, and if you can
get it for eight cents,
you buy it. In our case,
when people know us
and they see our cabbage
for 10 cents a pound,
and they have
experienced what it is
like to weed cabbage,
they say 'Forget it, I'm
not going to pay you 10
cents, I'm going to pay
you 20 cents.' That is
exactly what has
happened. We are
adding culture to
agriculture. We're
putting the humanity
back into it."
The social aspect of
the experiment is also
important to Budd.
While members need to
get their produce at a
cost that is somewhat
comparable to what
of his group got $555 Despite last year's terrible weather Budd's CSA members
worth of produce (at good value for their money. Below, the weekly share is ca
supermarket prices) for written on a blackboard at the shed.
their $400 share.
Two aspects of CSAs
are exciting new interest.
One aspect is that it
allows farmers to get
into agriculture without a
huge investment. Gordon
Scheifele, research
scientist and instructor at
Ridgetown College of
Agricultural Technology
sees this as an
opportunity for young
farmers to get started
when they have no
capital. On the edge of
most cities there are
many acres of farmland
being held for future
development, he points
out. A young farmer
still received
lculated and
JULY 1993 27