Subject: RE: Re: CSA listings

From: Andy Clark <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2000 10:11:11 -0400

Dori,

Dori wrote:

> I was under the impression that the listings accessible through 
> http://www.csacenter.org were the same as those published by 
> the USDA, but 
> csacenter had nothing for New Jersey.  

The CSA listings should be (are) the same at 4 mirror sites (listed below).
I just went to http://www.csacenter.org and found NJ, with the same list of
10 CSAs.   

Either click on the *DIRECTORY* button in the left frame, or click on 
*Database of CSA farms in the USA* after scrolling down a bit on the welcome
page, which looks like this:

____________
The Robyn Van En Center offers assistance to the enlarging CSA movement. The
Center can help you in the following ways. 

      Resource Center and Library
      Database of CSA farms in the USA
      Mail Order Publications
      Referrals
      This Web Site
_____________

The four mirror sites for the CSA database are:

http://www.csacenter.org/
http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/csa/
http://www.sare.org/csa/
http://www.biodynamics.com/csa.html

Why are there 4 mirror sites?  First, with its millions of readers, we were
given the impression that there would be THOUSANDS of hits on the web the
minute Parade magazine hit the streets.  Mirror sites would help handle all
those hits.  We did, in fact, get the most hits to at least one of the sites
on the day the *article* hit, but I don't think any of the sites would have
shut down from too many users at one time  :)  

Perhaps of interest to this group, from November '99 through February '00,
about 5,000 people visited the CSA websites.  This is unique visitor
sessions, not individual page hits.  That was enough to satisfy my program
that this was worth the effort last fall.

Secondly, the four organizations involved each put a lot of work into
developing the database. We are essentially sharing the ownership and the
credit for the database.  Also, why send someone from your web site about
CSA to another place to access the listing?  The four are, in no particular
order:

The Robyn Van En Center for CSA Resources in the Northeast
Alternative Farming Systems Information Center (AFSIC
The Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) and SARE
The Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association, Inc.

To continue giving credit where due, we could not possible have put the
database together without the help of all those other organizations out
there who have been working with CSAs over the years.  Contact information
for them can be found at
http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/csa/csacoorgs.htm#coorgs

Andy

Andy Clark, Ph.D.
SAN Coordinator
c/o AFSIC, Room 304
National Agricultural Library
10301 Baltimore Ave.
Beltsville, MD  20705-2351
PH:  301-504-6425
FAX: 301-504-6409
[email-masked]
http://www.sare.org

---

From: "Dori Green" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 02 Aug 2000 06:08:34 EDT

Thanks, Andy, for the links!  I've found a CSA with the same phone exchange 
as my new address -- I'm going to be sharing a huge Victorian in Plainfield 
with a bunch of other single professionals.  Found it in my first hit to the 
online classifieds of the local paper, it was the first place I called, the 
homeowner is involved in organic consumer issues and recognized my name.  It 
is a teensy tiny world.

I was under the impression that the listings accessible through 
http://www.csacenter.org were the same as those published by the USDA, but 
csacenter had nothing for New Jersey.  I did check the New York listings and 
I'm there in full living color.  It is entirely possible that Corning is 
just one of those strange places where CSA and intentional community are 
frighteningly progressive ideas that just won't work here.  If that's the 
case, I might just need to vote with my feet. John (the tenant who sort of 
fell out of the sky the day before I was called for the interview) wants to 
work my fields and I'm going to let him.  I'll be bringing lots of garlic 
home from the NOFA conference and we'll fill the raised beds with it.  By 
October I'll have some money to throw at advertising and we'll see what we 
can set up in terms of local subscriptions by January 1.

Another local farmer (from New Jersey, go figger) says that if I look for 
long-distance farm members in the area I'm going to, I'll be beating people 
off with a stick.  So maybe this CSA will work as an entity that's 
independent of the immediate community.  Stranger things have happened, I 
suppose!  I will certainly be an active member of the CSA that serves the 
area in which I'll be living.

A housemate is moving in here on Thursday, a one-month apprentice is joining 
us on Sunday, I'm hosting my first bus tour visitors on Saturday and again 
on Wednesday, buying a car before Thursday, presenting at the NOFA 
conference on Friday the 11th, coming home on the 13th to load the new-to-me 
car and heading out late in the afternoon of the 14th.

Then I think I will just collapse for 24 hours before starting the job.

I have it all worked out with my one paid CSA member to refund her payment 
and provide her with maps to all of my favorite local u-pick farms.  She's 
the one who donated the little lawn tractor.

Land prices in New Jersey are truly terrifying.  But there are always 
options, including keeping the land I've got.  It seems a little strange for 
me to be saving the farm by leaving it, but I'm sure not the first farmer to 
do so.

Dori Green
Ash Grove Community Farm
http://www.ic.org/agrove

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