On loving the local trend and the benefit of Community Supported Agriculture.

By Jamie Hausman

On any given weeknight, I spend my early evenings snapping ends off of green beans for dinner that were harvested just that morning. Each Wednesday, I stop by a local restaurant just minutes from my house to pick up my first order from Moore Farms and Friends, a local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) participant that’s just across the border in Alabama. In anticipation of the first delivery, I told a few friends about my new membership with the farmers. Every single one of them responded with “What’s a CSA?”. Interviewing chefs for a living and attempting to launch a farmers market on the side, I’ve researched several farms that participate in markets and offer CSAs.

CSA members purchase a subscription (called a “share”) to a farm and every week they pick up their box, bag or basket of locally harvested produce. Some CSAs, like the one I subscribe to, also allow you to purchase eggs, cheese or meat. This way, consumers know exactly where their food comes from, who grows it and how. This information is listed on the farm’s website and farmers are open to questions from subscribers about their practices. Most consumers think the only way to get wholesome, organic or even honest produce and meats is to find a local co-op or visit Whole Foods, which has an entire marketing campaign dedicated to communicating just that. However, most consumers can’t afford to shop there every week. By subscribing to a CSA you can accomplish at least these three things: save money, advocate for the environment and support local agriculture. Here’s how:

1. Save money

At first, subscribing to a CSA can seem like a big, expensive commitment. I’ve seen them range from $300 to $600 upfront, depending on the length of season. However, when you break down the cost per week, it’s more manageable and most likely less expensive than what you splurge on during one grocery trip for one or two meals.

Take my CSA for example. I pay an annual $30 fee to be a member. Then, each week, I choose what I want to purchase. Most weeks, I go for the $20 farmer’s pick box that includes approximately six types of produce and fruit. Then, I add on a dozen eggs from Christina’s Country Chickens for $4 and a pound of ground beef from Cedar Springs farm for $7.50. Plus, I don’t have to pay the up-charge I would at Publix for free-range, cage-free eggs and grass-fed beef. At around $30 per week for an entire year, that’s more than $1,000 total. To put that in perspective, the USDA produces a report every month called “Cost of Food at Home at Four Levels”. The average cost of food per week for a household of two people aged 19-50 ranges from $90 to $178, depending on if you are on a thrifty plan or a liberal plan. Even if I go to the store for some grains, that puts me under $50 per week for eating in, which is a good budget for an entry-level salary under $30K.

CSAs are affordable all over the country, even in New York City. El Poblano Farm has a CSA pick-up in Brooklyn that costs $490 up front for a full share (6-9 varieties of organic veggies every week for 18 weeks), which is around $27 per week. It doesn’t get cheaper anywhere else around the pricey city.

2. Advocate for the environment

There are so many documentaries (such as Food Inc. by Robert Kenner) about where our food comes from. When you’re strolling the produce section of the grocery store, you may as well be in an international studies class. Read the tiny sticker on that apple or that banana and you’ll see places listed as far away as Mexico, Guatemala, and Panama. Although some stores have taken strides in sourcing locally with meat and dairy, they still suffer in the produce department. Large grocery stores typically source food through brokers, cutting out the middle man to save money. For example, it’s cheaper to order different types of produce from Chiquita rather than sourcing from several farmers who produce different items.

CSAs aren’t perfect; you’ll likely still have to make a trip to the grocery for your meat, grain and dairy needs, but this way you know your dollar has gone into the pocket of a hardworking farmer in your area. Food miles is a term that gets tossed around in the local food debate, and it’s a way to measure how far your food travels to get to you. When you buy a banana from Panama, it could take a plane, train, truck or ship (or all of the above) to get to you, thus contributing to the unhealthy air quality and pollution crisis. An article by the Natural Resources Defense Council reported that, “Imports by airplane have a substantial impact on global warming pollution. In 2005, the import of fruits, nuts and vegetables into California by airplane released more that 70,000 tons of CO2, which is equivalent to more than 12,000 cars on the road.”

Even though that farmer had to drive into town to drop off his bounty so you could pick it up, your car and his truck are drops in the global bucket. Plus, how cool would it be to eat an apple as an afternoon snack that was plucked off a tree in your state that morning? You better believe that that Panamanian banana you had for breakfast was not picked yesterday.

3. Support local agriculture

Some of you are probably thinking, “Well, she lives in the South. I live in the North and could never get produce like that.” Not true. Sure, I’ve got an awesome database here in Georgia  that shows me all of the amazing farmers nearby who deliver to Atlanta, but after a little time on Google, I found a CSA website for almost anywhere. Even New Mexico and Chicago, my hometown.

There are hardworking, honest farmers throughout this country. In fact, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports that there are 2.2 million family farms in the U.S., and 96 percent of them are family-owned. While the definition of family-owned is stretched to cover large farms, small farms subsist on subscribers who invest in their crops. Most farmers don’t rise before the sun to sell their corn and watermelons to Purina and Publix; they do it to drive into town, like their grandparents did, to feed it to you through weekly markets and CSAs.

Shopping local is on the rise in most American cities. Join the trend and let someone who knows the growing season pick out what’s wholesome and ripe for you each week. In a time where everything in the world is outsourced, meet your local farmers. They’ve been feeding our world for generations; it’s time we recognize that and let them feed us.

Jamie Hausman writes our Whisk ‘Til Combined column. She’s a Chicago native, Mizzou graduate and a resident of Atlanta, Ga. She adores her adopted home and spends her time writing, editing and pitching stories to local and national online publications, as well as exploring new neighborhoods and restaurants. Check her out on Twitter @jamiehausman.