Subject: Re: Farmer cooperative CSA's

From: "Dori Green" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 10:17:15 EDT

This can be one of the best ways to operate a CSA, IMNSHO.

With a network of other local farmers I'm no longer obligated to try to grow 
everything everybody wants, whether or not I like growing it or whether or 
not my land is suited to it (for example, I'm on rocky hardscrabble with 
lots of deer -- not good for corn).  I network with somebody in the river 
valley who does uncertified organic corn just to have a use for her 
composted chicken and turkey manure.  She doesn't want to have lots of 
"civilians" wandering aruund on her property (not much of a people person); 
my main focus is education of those civilians and I love having them here.  
Everybody wins!

I also network with a farmer who's got a huge operation on the river.  He's 
not organic but he operates several u-pick operations with IPM.  He just put 
out 40,000 pepper plants, whoof!  I run group picking-and-putting-up 
parties.  Everybody wins!

The important thing to do if you're coordinating something like this is to 
make sure that you're getting what you want and need for the amount of 
effort and expense you're putting out.  I address this directly with the 
farmers and with the members -- "I can do this and I'm willing to do this 
and what's going to be in it for me?"  This might seem mercenary at first, 
but it sure beats burnout and resentment later.

At this point the farmers are willing to sell to me at wholesale, and 
members are willing to pay retail commercial prices once they compare those 
to certified organic prices.  So I'm making more as a networker/distributor 
than I ever will as a farmer.

It took me a while to feel okay with this.  But hey, outside employers are 
willing to pay me $20 an hour and more for my skills with computer and 
writing (newsletters, e-group lists, websites, etc.) and group facilitation 
(trainer of trainers in creative conflict resolution, quality system 
auditor).  So there is no reason for me to feel bad about being paid at the 
same rate if I'm using those same skills, and there really is nothing wrong 
with prosperity.

There's a big difference between the person who's put $40,000 of her life's 
savings and her name on a $60,000 mortgage and the annual tax rolls in order 
to have a farm, and brings wholesaled items from other local farms -- and 
the guy who buys a used pickup and backs it up to a wholesale loading dock 
and then represents himself as a farmer at the market, selling at 25% over 
wholesale so that bona fide farmers can't get retail prices.  That's a 
common scam at lots of markets and one of the reasons I keep working to 
create a CSA network in this area.

Dori Green
Ash Grove Community Farm & Center for Sustainable Living
Corning, NY

http://www.ic.org/agrove

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From: Molly Petersons <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2000 11:32:24 -0700

A group of us are considering forming a co-op to market our veggies
cooperatively as a large CSA.  We live in a region where there are some
large farms growing corn, grains, peas, squash and seed crops and some
small acreage farms growing mixed vegetables.  I'm the only one with direct
experience operating a CSA, and a co-op sounds good to me, but I'm
wondering if any of you have experience with this concept.  I know that in
Seattle there is a many famer CSA providing food to office workers in the
city.  We would be targeting large employers in our area as potential
membership pools and pick-up sites.  Any info on how this has worked for
others would be helpful for our group.