Benefits of Joining a CSA Farm: Fresh Food & Community

So now that we’ve established the start of a definition of a CSA, why join a CSA? Here six good reason why you should.

1. When You Join a CSA, You Support the Food You Eat

Simply put, CSAs allow you to support the production of the food you eat. Usually, that participation comes in the form of an annual membership fee to a CSA farm or farming collective. That membership fee gives the sponsoring farm start-up capital to begin a growing season.

2. You Support Farmers All Year Long When You Join a CSA

Farmers get paid when they sell a harvest and for most of them, that means they get paid once a year. From that one payment has to be deducted every expense they incur in that year. Think about that for a second. Imagine being paid once a year and having to pay for everything out of that one paycheck.

Utilities usually frown on rolling over a bill 11 times in the hopes of receiving a lump sum payment. That’s a simplified example but it makes the point.

3. Your Community Benefits When You Join a CSA

By selling CSA memberships, a farm is essentially selling shares in a harvest in advance of that harvest. When you join a CSA at the beginning of the year allows a farmer to get crops in the ground without having to depend on a bank loan.

Smaller farmers, especially those who want to practice more organic and basic farming methods, often can get agricultural loans and for many of these folks, CSAs are a real lifeline.

It allows member to support small, local farms and while doing so, share in the harvest of healthy foods throughout the growing season.

So that’s three good reasons why to join a CSAs. You support the food you eat, you support the farmers and their families, and there are many other wonderful benefits when you join a CSA.

We’ll touch on this subject again, as well as many other positive aspects of why to support and join a CSA farm near you. Feel free to leave a comment below to tell us some of the reasons you belong to a CSA.