Quiet Waters Share Harvest scheme is a new model of Community Supported Agriculture that aims to increase the experiential learning and economic rewards for its participants whilst offering local, chemical free, food production at a price comparable with supermarket equivalents which can be sold to residents and businesses within the community.
What is CSA?
The CSA concept is confined to the industrial world. It is the re-introduction of public participation in farming and access to locally and sustainably produced food. Although the economies of many developing countries are struggling,
a walk through any African city or village reveals a thriving and highly productive local food economy. These communities have remained involved in agriculture because:
• The majority of people have access to land which has until recently been plentiful and traditionally passed on to future generations.
• There are few jobs in industry and commerce.
• In the absence of social security, working the land is often the only option for an income, food security and survival.
There appear to be three main reasons behind the development of community supported agriculture in the industrialised world:
- First and foremost CSA is a response from consumers to a society in which they are increasingly divorced from the land and concerned about the methods used to produce their food.
- Secondly, CSA is a direct local marketing opportunity pioneered by producers struggling to compete with global economies of scale.
- Thirdly, CSA can be a strategy for national food security.
CSA is not a trend or a model spreading across the globe through imitation. It is a concept, adapted by consumers and producers in places where the prevailing system no longer addresses their needs. It has occurred in countries where a section of the public concerned about food quality and production methods have had enough conviction to make lifestyle changes that benefit them and their food producers. In those countries where it has
long been established there appears to be an evolution of the CSA model. For example, in Japan a few pioneer projects provided a solution to an endemic problem. Their example subsequently evolved into a vast range of initiatives satisfying the needs of the society from which they grew.
As the model matures, farms form networks to further satisfy consumer demand for a variety of food. Food co-operatives emerge, instigated by consumers, farmers and entrepreneurs. All tend to provide similar services with emphasis on known farmers sustainably producing local food.
The history of CSA
In the past communities were closely linked to the land on which their food was grown. Prior to the industrial revolution and the resulting urbanisation of the UK, the majority of the population lived in the rural areas, either working on the land or closely related to someone who did.
Villages and market towns developed around local food and trade, limited by the speed of the horse and durability of the product. Households and communities were largely self reliant in terms of food production. Since then, the population has shifted towards the towns and cities. In the 18th century some 40 per cent of the population worked on the land. In 1900 this number had fallen to eight per cent and today it is only 2.5 per cent.17 Indeed, the agricultural and horticultural census reveals a loss of 18,600 people from farming between June 1997 and June 1999. Today, most of us are four generations removed from someone involved in agriculture.
We can trace the roots of CSA in the UK back to the early 1990s, a period when farming incomes declined and interest in organic produce increased, despite the limited number of outlets. Local food became an issue and the CSA concept was introduced, based on the experience of Japan and the US. Organic producers took on the distribution and marketing aspect of CSA through box schemes, but as supermarkets began to stock more organic produce the impetus for CSA was lost. From the mid-1990s a deepening farming crisis combined with food scares (including BSE, salmonella, E coli and more recently the devastating effects of foot and mouth disease) have focused consumer attention on how their food is produced.
The impact of industrial farming on the environment, on landscapes and wildlife on food quality and safety, and on the cultural fabric of the nation is all too apparent. Increasingly, people are looking for more sustainable alternatives to industrial farming and to re-establish their links with the land. This desire has manifested itself through the huge increase in demand for organic food and the popularity of farmers’ markets. CSA is again on the agenda, a potential tool for farm diversification and community development.
Member involvement
Typically most CSAs encourage their members to work on the farm, possibly in conjunction with events and celebrations. However producers generally feel that members are not always reliable and are generally not capable of sustained physical work. Thus working on the farm creates a respect
in members for the levels of work producers put in for little financial reward. Members can contribute by bringing their professional experience (such as legal, financial, architectural, construction and publishing) to the initiative.
Depending on the scheme’s organisation members may provide these services for the mutual benefit of all members, or in return for farm produce.
How it’s going to work at Quiet waters
At Quiet Waters we have developed a variation on the CSA approach that we feel provides an excellent model for such schemes in the future.
We are initiating the ‘share harvest’ scheme as a way of providing training through action learning, an opportunity for people without access to growing space to take part in progressive horticulture and a means of providing much needed part time employment in a potentially lucrative land based operation.
The focus of the scheme will be skills learning and local food production to meet the needs of not only the participants but a wider range of local needs in terms of neighbouring residents and businesses.
We will extend our existing management plan and innovative husbandry techniques to all participants and within this evolving relationship will encourage feedback on better ways to develop new products, systems and methods through experiential learning and feedback from all participants so that the scheme gives a best fit to the needs of the soil, the active horticultural workers and the broader customer base in terms of how food is produced and marketed.
This will function hand in hand with the Wholesome Food Association’s ‘open gate’ policy that will encourage customers and other interested parties to visit and discuss the methods and approach taken to healthy, local food production without the use of chemicals. It will also give an insight into elements of Permaculture, Traditional varietal seed saving, and non fossil fuel dependent or renewable energy powered intensive production techniques which point the way towards a sustainable local food producing future.
There are limited places available, mainly due to the size of our holding and the practical constraints at play within our overall system. But Ten individuals will gain part time employment and training placements as part of the scheme with the possibility of this growing in the years that follow start up.
This will involve an introduction to the basic systems and methods currently employed within the growing systems and also the basics of organic fertilization, soil building and nutrient cycling in what we call our ‘Metabolic’ approach. Principles of rotation, succession and companion planting will also be explained before the participants get involved in every aspect of the preparation, sowing, transplanting, irrigation, tending and harvesting work that forms the enterprise as a whole.
This will initially require a minimum commitment of one day per week’s labour, which whilst flexible in application will be a contractual condition of continued involvement in the scheme. In this way participants will see their work bear results throughout the year and will also involve extensive season extension and winter harvesting.
In return for this commitment the participants will obviously benefit from intensive skills learning and practical experience of food production and be part of an effort to introduce the local community to an effective and cheap method of gaining healthy food and sustainable community development.
In terms of direct benefits the participants will receive a weekly supply of fresh food produce for themselves and their family that will reflect the very best quality seasonal foods and additional to this they will be eligible for a percentage share of the financial revenue of the horticultural business as a whole, in reward for their own input and efforts in helping to make it work and its produce saleable throughout the community on a year round basis.
In this way the share harvest scheme represents a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable development project that creates jobs, economic stimulus and health benefits to all of its participants and customers while helping towards North Devon’s targets of reducing CO2 emissions and promoting diverse and vibrant local rural land use opportunities and business development.
Please contact us if you want to get involved.