Some CSAs are started by farms that have operated for many years under different models -i.e. selling at farmers’ markets or selling to stores.  In these cases, the farmers have recognized the potential stability provided by selling CSA shares and involving community members in more of the farms’ operations and labor needs.

Many new CSA’s however, are started by groups or partnerships of friends, most of whom have recently graduated from college and view farming as a noble way to make a living and build a life.

A USA Today article from three days ago profiles a few of these young farmers and describes some of the challenges they face.  Chief among these challenges are the complex tax systems, tenuous land-lease agreements and lack of subsidies for small-scale farming.

It is often difficult, if not impossible for new farmers to purchase the land on which they farm.  While the landowners get tax breaks for leasing the land for agriculture, the farmers themselves cannot always be sure that the land won’t be sold.

Yet, as the phrase “Community Supported Agriculture” indicates, the system requires the hard work, support and common vision of groups of people.  Whenever and wherever community support can assuage the uncertainties and risks of starting CSA ventures, it is welcomed.

Thus, contrary to the notion that small-scale farming and farmers are techo-phobes and denouncers of modern life, many young farmers embrace technology – specifically, online communications platforms – that enable and enhance their ability to develop communities around their farms.

“Along with their Facebooking, Twittering contemporaries, they also share a zeal to tell the world about their farms and their lives. Almost every farm has a website and many have blogs where the farmers post news of their trials and tribulations, from trying to get a loan from the county agricultural agent to the problems of building a reliable fence to keep deer out.”

-Elizabeth Weise, USA Today

In an article on civileats.com from last month, MK Wyle points out that, though technology can and should in no way diminish a reliance on nature, it can be very helpful in improving the processes of small-scale farming.

We need a hand with CSS/design. If you know anyone, or you’re interested in lending a hand, please email alex@reservetheearth.org.

Go to our CSA finder and try it out!

So, what’s our goal here? Who are we? What’s our angle?

In upcoming blogs, we’ll present interviews with farmers, review studies, report on news, comment on regulations, innovative practices, soil science, water management, animal husbandry, business management, etc. and tell you how many great conversations we’re having with farmers and customers.  They will aim to be useful and inspiring.

But, this is my first post on rte so I think its appropriate to offer an explanation of why we are doing this. I’ll tell you a bit about me and I’ll tell you a bit about our philosophy with this project.

The origins of rte:

Alex and I both attended UMASS Amherst in a program that allowed us to design our own majors. He graduated in December with a degree in programming, web-development, and entrepreneurship. I am studying (one semester left) environmental economics and entrepreneurship.

We were working together on another project (and playing ping-pong) very late one night in fall ‘08 and talking about stuff. I had just spoken that day with my buddy, Doug Brush, a CSA farmer based here in Massachusetts and was telling Alex about the conversation… and somewhere in there, within the next few minutes, somewhere between the ping and the pong of the next few serves, the idea for reservetheearth.org germinated.

We began working on it the next day. We did extensive research. We called farmers. We wrote a business plan and developed our thinking. We submitted our business plan to a UMASS-funded innovation challenge competition. We were invited to attend. We gave our pitch and fielded questions from a panel of 12 judges. We won! (not first place, but who cares).

My background:

My family had two large vegetable gardens when I was growing up in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York. I spent a considerable portion of my young summers alternately pulling weeds, swatting black flies and getting under foot as my parents tended the gardens.

Then, seven years ago, quite by accident, I became the head gardener on an estate on Martha’s Vineyard where I worked for three years. There, I learned about managing a large property; ordering plants, planting, irrigation, pest control, pruning, weed control, transplanting, trimming and managing contractors and staff.

I then worked for a well-known gardener and columnist, Abigail Higgins, on Martha’s Vineyard for three more summers. From her, I learned a lot about the finer details of horticulture, especially latin (most of which I’ve forgotten – sorry Abigail), but also and perhaps more importantly her 30+ years in the garden had given her a strong and infectious perspective about how to look at some of the choices we’re faced with in this high-tech., fast-paced, often disconnected and frequently dizzying life. Her insights were inspiring.

I became friends with farmers and a member of a CSA. I was reminded how much better food tastes when it’s fresh and grown with care and not sullied by the sterile production methods of modern industrial farming. I felt better physically. I started really getting into cooking.

What I’ve taken from these experiences, going back to when I was a youngin’, is an overwhelming sense that many of us, in the collective sense, have lost touch with some of the best stuff on earth; namely the earth itself.

Our philosophy:

I know from experience how gratifying it is to grow plants and vegetables and animals and to work outside. The smell of the soil, the variable heat from the sun, the different types of rain and mist and wind and clouds that make each day outside an utterly unique experience; this is good stuff. This is living.

I know from experience how gratifying it is to prepare a meal with the vegetables and animals you’ve grown and raised. The sense of connectedness and continuity and purpose and even accomplishment is without comparison; this is good food. This is eating.

My ambitions have taken me away from that daily dose of earth and I now spend a lot of time on the computer. I am okay with this for now. I’ll be back in the weeds soon enough (in one way or another , but there are A LOT of people like me who know what they are missing and many more who don’t even yet know how great locally grown food is or how great the experience of becoming a member of this community can be for your sense of purpose and place and physical health.

We know two things:

First, more people should know about and become involved with CSA programs. We want to catch these people where they are – i.e. online – and compel them to find and join a farm.

Second, we believe that farmers should embrace the time and cost-saving benefits of automated business management… more on this in the weeks to come.

Our goals:

1- The internet is where most people go for information. We will provide information and services for customers and farmers regarding everything CSA online.

2- The internet is where most people communicate with one another. We want to make it easy for customers to find, choose and order from farms and speak to other customers and farmers. We want to make it easy for farmers to speak to each other and to researchers and to find workshops, seminars, bargains on supplies and great information.

Conclusion:

A lot of factors have pulled us away from the process of growing food and our small-scale agriculture roots and the communities built around them.  This trend isn’t apt to reverse anytime soon.  In fact, it will probably continue precipitously.  However, there is an opportunity to bring people down from their common cloud, by reminding them that in the clouds is where they are and by showing them the way just up the road, just out of town to a local farm, some hard-working farmers, and the delicious food they’ve grown on a fertile swath of common ground.

A big thanks to John Panek, for helping us with our identity package – it looks great!

Much, much more coming in the next few weeks.

-Alex