As participants in Simply Good Food, we have a great opportunity at this time to implement a true Community Supported Agriculture scheme. After a year of hard-earned experience, we have a clear understanding of what a CSA truly means.
The aim is to sustain agriculture by making it financially viable for growers to supply the CSA, with strong connections and interaction with consumers.
What follows is some discussion on the nature of Community Supported Agriculture, Simply Good Food’s present structure, and how it might evolve over the next few months into the member-led organisation that is a true CSA.
What is a CSA?
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is clearly defined in the phrase. It is a group of people (community) supporting the farm (agriculture) by purchasing directly from the grower, so the growers have an assured market for their produce. The grower can plan ahead safe in the knowledge that they have a market for their produce and that the members of the CSA will see them through the ups and downs of agriculture. This enables the grower to grow a range of produce to satisfy the diet of the consumers and as a direct consequence promotes good soil fertility with crop diversity and rotational planting. The consumers, by directly supporting the farm, are sharing the risk of food production with the grower.
The consumers know exactly where their food is grown and under what conditions. The relationship between grower and consumer fosters a closer understanding of the importance of food quality in maintaining a healthy life style. A CSA is an innovative method of connecting local growers with local consumers; developing a regional food supply and strong local economy; maintaining a sense of community; encouraging environmental land practices; and acknowledging the experience of growers and producers working on small to medium farms.
A CSA is looking to create a return for the mutual benefit of its member community. The returns of the CSA are to help grow the farm, provide better resources for the farmers, expand the coverage of the CSA, improve distribution mechanisms and promote the health values of producing food in this manner.
The main benefit is making nutritious healthy and, dare I say it, great food available to members and their families that in the process is not leeching and destroying the land like modern industrial farming.
This has to be a community-led initiative by the very nature of the core values of CSA philosophy: a shared partnership with the growers for the mutual benefit of all members, both grower and consumer.
The Extended CSA
Simply Good Food has been unwittingly moving to what I have discovered is a well documented model of a CSA – the extended version. This came from a pragmatic view that we needed a wider range of produce to satisfy the dietary and nutritional needs of our members. For example, it was clear we needed to source fruit and staples such as potatoes and onions from a reliable, consistent source such as Lawson’s Organic Farms who are farming on a commodity level quite similar to traditional growers. The large financial investment Scott has in plant and equipment requires such a level of return on investment he cannot entertain the financial risk Frank and Josje have taken in growing for the CSA. The wide range of crops that Frank and Josje grow effectively reduce, or more accurately eliminate, their ability to on sell to wholesalers whose primary interest is bulk at a low price.
Scott Lawson cannot take this risk so we are extremely fortunate that Frank and Josje have taken this brave step into the future
To further explain the Extended CSA model I am going to use Peter Reynolds’ description[1]
“In the extended model of community-supported agriculture – namely, the
connection channel – the CSA is not a single farm but the place in a web of
complementary farms where consumers connect with the land.”
So we have been unwittingly making a connection channel.
Some questions. What form should this channel take? How do concepts like sharing the risk with the farm fit with an extended CSA or connection channel?
The CSA organisation and overhead needs to be slim, simple and efficient so the direct consumer/grower relationship is not compromised with a distributor layer, which effectively forces the CSA to fall into the traditional role of a distributor with a profit motive. The aim is to sustain agriculture by making it financially viable for growers to supply the CSA with strong connections and interaction with the consumer.
The Connection channel or extended CSA needs to be a joint venture between the farms and the consumers – it cannot be its own entity. That is the heart of the matter that faces Simply Good Food (SGF) currently. The farms and the consumers need to be bound through the CSA. Unfortunately, this does not happen presently, the farmers/suppliers treating SGF as just another retail outlet and the consumer treating SGF as just an online shop/retailer. In this form of relationship there is no commitment from grower or consumer to the connection channel styled CSA. SGF has become just another avenue for purchase with no loyalty or shared risk concepts being entertained by farmer or consumer.
“the CSA might come to be perceived, either by the farmer or the members or both, as a natural foods retailer. At this point the psychology of the marketplace kicks in, placing
self-interest at the forefront of values. Soon the CSA farmer is maximizing
profit and the members are dickering about price. Even worse, the connection
to the land is lost, and a great opportunity squandered.”[2]
Our challenge is to turn this perception around and create a sense of ownership.
I never intended to end up running a Fruit and Vege Distribution business. My intention at the beginning of this was to be a caretaker till the formation of a full blown CSA initiative. I am not going to rake over the past and it is largely irrelevant now and only an anchor to pull us down and back.
The time has come to look forward to how we can secure a food supply that meets sustainable, environmental, health and nutritional values. Without positive and real support for the farms practicing these principles we are in grave danger of these very farms vanishing into the ether of industrial fertiliser.
Simply Good Food, to succeed in a “classic” business sense, needs to maximise profit for its shareholders, namely Sonia Corbett (Distribution Manager) and myself. This runs completely counter to the core values of the CSA philosophy – a fair deal for the farmer and consumer. It appears to me that the grower and the consumer are the big losers in the current food distribution dynamic and by continuing Simply Good Food in its current form we are falling into the same traps and patterns of the status quo. We would be forced to exploit the consumer and grower to make this enterprise economic and profitable in a business sense.
For the CSA to truly work it needs to be a community led initiative: it cannot be, by its very definition, controlled or led by one entity and a private company at that! I believe that from the very beginning these principles have been compromised. This is about community, and the community needs to steer the direction of the venture and have a right to a say.
At the centre we are all in this for high quality nutritious food grown in an environmentally sustainable manner. It’s about how we organise getting the food. If there is one thing I have learnt, by leaving this to the current commercial machine the grower is going to suffer and ultimately we will lose access to a quality food supply.
To maintain the farm and still charge realistic but not excessive prices the means of distribution need to be as streamlined and efficient as possible. A volunteer based workforce fits the economic realities of such streamlining.
But why volunteer to work for a private company? It does not make sense. Volunteering for something you have a stake in financially and emotionally makes far more sense to me.
This leads me back to a community and a community seems to me to be a group of people with common objectives and ideals.
Hey isn’t that us?
The burden of running, organising and being responsible cannot be undertaken as the sole responsibility of individuals; this needs to be a collective enterprise or Simply Good Food is just another business with an organic bent exploiting the current buzz of sustainability.
What do we do?
Create a cooperative.
SOLUTIONS
1. Joint Ownership – No more of us and them
Grower – Consumer cooperative.
The co-operative to be responsible for managing the interaction of farmer/consumer. Made up of growers and consumer members.
2. Sharing the Risk
- Subscription based payments guarantees farmer income.
- Commitment from members to a seasonal period ensures continuity for the farm.
- Aids crop planning and farm management.
Actions
Split the CSA from Simply Good Food CSA Limited (SGF)
- Form co-operative by October 2010.
- The co-operative takes over the distribution of produce to members.
- Using an Industrial and Provident cooperative Society model. “A society whose business is to be conducted mainly for the purpose of improving the conditions of living or otherwise promoting the social well-being of members of the working classes; or otherwise for the benefit of the community; and there are special reasons why the society should be registered under the Act rather than as a company under the Companies Act 1993. “
- This is not costly or expensive to implement
- Takes 8 members to form.
- Starts completely afresh with no debt or legacy from SGF
- A member buys a share minimum of 50 $1 shares
- Volunteer work at the farm/depot for membership if entry price too steep.
Simply Good Food Current Organisation
- SGF provides website and online tools for percentage of sales – 10%
- SGF becomes an educational and CSA resource provider.
- SGF seeks funding grants to promote CSA initiatives and principles.
NEW CSA
Subscription Model
- Move to subscription model with main CSA farm – offer seasonal/yearly subscriptions. This can either be for harvest bags or commitment to purchase.
- Still offer individual choice for supplementary farms such as Scott Lawson and Jeremy Howden – and remainder produce from Eco Farm
- Still offer complimentary products like Bees Blessing, Macsnack, coffee, raw milk
Admin Cooperative
- Distribution Manager - a weekly fee for managing ordering and food distribution
- Volunteers pack out and assist Distribution Manager
- Commercial Couriers for delivery
- $50 share price for cooperative membership/share
Advantages of Cooperative Society membership
- Have a say in the running of the organisation
- Directly support the farm
- produce only available to members
- be a part of a community/society
- contribute to the production and preservation of your food supply
- collective power
- great nutritious food
- Preserve local farming
- Preserve local economies
Summary
In short, I see this as a great opportunity to implement a true CSA based on all the hard earned experience Simply Good Food has obtained over the past year, and utilise existing growers like Frank and Josje who understand how to grow for a CSA. Simply Good Food have infrastructure in place, committed farmers willing to supply, a base to work from in Wellington, a committed group of regular purchasers. We have all the ingredients for a CSA pie we just need to bake it. And more importantly we have the understanding of what a CSA truly means.
We need six people to step forward and be willing to put their name on an application to form an Industrial and Provident Society cooperative.
Sonia and I have already signed up.
Who’s next?
John McKay
021 381183 or 04 803 3819
[1] http://www.organicconsumers.org/Organic/csaforward.cfm#Extending
Social Sustainability: Organic Food at the Crossroads
By Peter C. Reynolds, Ph.D. Fearless Foods, LLC
[2] http://www.organicconsumers.org/Organic/csaforward.cfm#Extending
Social Sustainability: Organic Food at the Crossroads
By Peter C. Reynolds, Ph.D. Fearless Foods, LLC
