In 1985, Robyn Van En pioneered a new concept in North American farming at her Indian Line Farm in South Egremont, Mass. By selling shares of the projected harvest from her apple orchard to local customers, she ensured a stable income for the farm. In exchange, the farm's “shareholders” received a regular supply of fresh produce, and a sense that they were helping a local grower and voting with their dollars for ecologically sound agriculture.

Modeled after similar programs in Europe and Japan, Van En called the business model Community Supported Agriculture. And before her untimely death in 1997, she had become the leader of a budding movement, authoring books on CSA programs, and helping to found over 200 similar initiatives around the country.

CSAs have since continued to grow in tandem with the broader local food movement, with different programs offering shareholders weekly deliveries of assorted produce, dairy items, eggs, cheese, meat, poultry — whatever is fresh, local and in season. And, where farmers' markets allow customers to meet and talk with local growers, many CSAs offer members a chance to visit the farms themselves, or even work there for a set time each month helping to plant, harvest or package product.

“Right now we have 1,700 farms listed on our national CSA database, and we're constantly being contacted by new farms,” said Nichole Nazelrod, program coordinator for the Robyn Van En Center at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pa. This includes farms in all 50 states, although the programs are most concentrated in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest and West Coast regions.

“I think it has a lot to do with interest in stimulating local economies and keeping the dollars local. And with gas prices so high, people are really starting to think, how much are they paying for winter tomatoes with no flavor?” she added. “I think it brings an awareness about where these products are coming from, what it takes to get them to a supermarket. It also brings the seasons back to their life. It's actually kind of an old-fashioned idea — it's going back to a simpler, more local food system.”

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