From P2P Foundation

= farms that look to the urban and suburban districts to buy shares of their produce, a portion of which is often delivered each week directly to people’s homes or other central pickup location.

("This has been an amazingly successful model, to the point where many established CSA’s have a long waiting list of potential customers.") [1]

Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community-supported_agriculture

Description

"-Supported Agriculture (CSA) is an arrangement in which a farm sells shares of the harvest to raise capital prior to the growing season. In return, CSA members (shareholders) receive a basket of produce every week or so and often have an opportunity or requirement to work a designated number of hours on the farm or at the distribution point. This arrangement is advantageous to farmer and consumer alike. The farmer is able to raise capital during the slow season and distribute the risk of a weak harvest over a multitude of shareholders; the CSA member gains access to local, responsibly produced food at a discount and helps build a sustainable local food system in the process."

More Information

See:

1. Elizabeth Henderson and Robyn Van En, Sharing the Harvest: A Citizen’s Guide to Community Supported Agriculture (White Rover Junction, Vt., 2007);
2. Steven M. Schnell, “Food with a Farmer’s Face: Community-Supported Agriculture in the United States,” Geographical Review 97, no. 4 (October 2007): 550–64;
3. Jack Kittredge, “Community Supported Agriculture: Rediscovering Community,” in Rooted in the Land: Essays on Community and Place, ed. William Vitek and Wes Jackson (New Haven, Conn., 1996), 253–60;
4. Laura B. DeLind, “Considerably More than Vegetables, a Lot Less than Community: The Dilemma of Community Supported Agriculture,” in Fighting for the Farm: Rural America Transformed, ed. Jane Adams (Philadelphia, 2003), 192–208;
5. Claire C. Hinrichs and Thomas A. Lyson, Remaking the North American Food System: Strategies for Sustainability (Lincoln, Neb., 2007).