When it's time to cut back on family expenditures, a prime place to start is with the food budget. Once the “easy” savings are implemented — first by eating out a lot less, then by buying store brand or bulk, and then by preparing meals more from scratch — then it becomes more of challenge to cut further.
One possible opportunity for further savings, especially if you enjoy fresh produce, is through community-supported agriculture. The way this works is as follows:
- A farm offers shares of his production for sale, ahead of the production and growing season.
- People buy shares for a set price. This offsets the farm's operating expenses prior to the production season.
- As the crops are harvested (or the products made) each person receives their share(s), usually over several months.
There are some advantages of getting produce through community-supported agriculture arrangements. First, the food is fresh. It doesn't get much fresher. Second, there is the opportunity to understand exactly what goes into the food: what kind of fertilization, what kind of feed, what kind of pest control, what kind of irrigation methods, etc. This creates confidence that the food is wholesome because the growing method is transparent. Third, it supports the local economy through job creation and maintenance.
All well and good, but is community-supported agriculture a bargain?
This arrangement is certainly good for the farm. A share might give a lot of produce, or only a little produce, or possibly nothing, depending on weather and other acts of God. That's an inherent risk of the purchase of a share. Regardless, the farm gets the money. It's a bit like the farm selling a futures contract, but the quantity is left undetermined.
But let's say that the weather cooperates, and the crops grow well. Some other factors come into play:
- Are the crops what you like to eat? You might end up getting eggplant and turnips at 3 cents per pound, but if you can't stand eggplant or turnips, you're out of luck. Check into what the typical crops are.
- Is the typical amount of food too much? Your share is your share. Can you go through all of the food that you've already bought? If not, then it may be more economical just to buy it in the store.
- Is the typical amount of food too little for what you pay? A CSA arrangement should be able to give information about what was delivered for a share in previous seasons. Check out what was given, and see if the typical quantities are worth the price.
- How far do you have to travel to pick up your share? One CSA arrangement we looked at was from a farm about 45 minutes away. The farm wouldn't deliver the food; we would have had to pick it up. The gas would have nearly doubled the cost of the produce. If the farm were nearby, then this wouldn't have been an issue. With gas north of $3 per gallon, this can be a significant consideration.
Buying a share in community-supported agriculture may be a bargain, but it can just as easily not be. In either case, though, there are the indirect benefits that come from supporting a local farm that might be very important to an individual. Then, cost may not be the big consideration.
Great post; we talked about this topic last year when we were deciding whether or not to be a part of one. Fortunately we found one that was a bargain.
Living in the Raleigh area, we found one throught the Local Harvest site called The Produce Box. They deliver to your door and the portions worked for our family.
The best part in my opinion was the option to skip weeks. During the summer there were some big deliveries and it was a bit much for us to eat even when we shared with some friends.
For $22/week we have our sides covered for the week and sometimes our entire meal as we have been having a few vegetarian dishes.
@Elle: That’s good service! It sounds like the food amount is similar to the one we looked at. The home delivery is a nice feature.
Thanks for this post. I looked into a CSA last summer, but I looked into it too late and all of the shares were sold. I have to make sure to do this in the next few months. We can eat most of the produce or freeze it, but there are some veggies we really don’t like. Does the farm tell you in advance what crops to expect?
Good points about turnips and eggplant. Finding out ahead of time about the CSA’s typical produce is important.