A new report has revealed the benefit community supported agriculture (CSA) programmes have on communities, local economies and the environment. The report, The Impact of Community Supported Agriculture, was commissioned by organic certification body the Soil Association and released yesterday.

The report suggests that CSAs provide a range of benefits for communities in which they are established. Community farming has become increasingly popular in the UK in recent years; Of the 200 CSAs in the UK, including those in development, the majority are under three years old. In the United States the model’s popularity has exploded, with US Department of Agriculture estimates putting numbers of CSA farms at over 12,000.

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The farming model offers an innovative approach to reconnecting people with their food, and helps to build strong, mutually beneficial partnerships between communities and farmers. Though community farms may be managed in a variety of different ways, the CSA model enables communities to take control of their food supply by providing their members with a variety of local, often organically produced food from vegetables and meat, to milk, bread and honey.

CSAs can also help people to develop and share skills; over three-quarters of CSAs in the UK offer training programmes. They also tend to benefit local employment more than the conventional model. Employment on CSAs is equivalent to 0.14 employees/hectare compared with a mean of 0.027 employees/hectare across UK agricultural as a whole.

SA report reveals wellbeing associated with CSAs

The Soil Association report was conducted as part of its ongoing promotion of CSAs, under the Making Local Food Work programme. It found that CSA schemes in England comprise of at least 5,000 trading members and feed around 12,500 people a year.

The report was based on interviews with CSA members. Over 70 per cent of those questioned said their quality of life had improved since becoming involved. They also said cooking and eating habits have changed through using more local, season and healthy food.

The report also shows the environmental benefits which can be gained from the CSA model; on the CSAs studied by the Soil Association, 55 per cent have planted more hedges and trees and 61 per cent have introduced new wildlife areas.

Bonnie Hewson, CSA Project Manager at the Soil Association, points out that “this evaluation report confirms that CSA is powerful on many levels. It is a proactive response to concerns around resilience and transparency in the food system and provides a logical step for consumers towards reclaiming sovereignty over the way their food is grown, processed and traded.”

Farmers themselves were also found to benefit from the model, as the community support can  provide a life-line to many farmers and present an opportunity to diversify. Turnover for CSA schemes reflects the high productivity per acre of CSA farms and there is the opportunity for additional income from traded produce and other services.

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