Cooperation and Competition in the Local Food Movement: A Focus on Community Supported Agriculture

• a profile of the CSA population; The “Cost-Price Squeeze” • likely impacts of the “cost-price squeeze” on CSAs; The traditional farm “cost-price squeeze” appears to be • owners’ motivations for running a CSA; and a reality for CSA operations. [...] Total Acreage of Farm Dedicated to the CSA During the First Season What was the total acreage of farm dedicated to the CSA during the first season? 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% Less than 5% 6% to 10% 11% to 20% 21% to 30% 31% to 40% 41% to 50% 51% to 60% More than 60% % of farmers responding Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs Policy Brief 3 Figure 2. [...] Total Acreage of Farm Dedicated to the CSA Currently What is the total acreage of farm dedicated to the CSA currently? 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50% Less than 5% 6% to 10% 11% to 20% 21% to 30% 31% to 40% 41% to 50% 51% to 60% More than 60% % of farmers responding Farm Labor Just over two-thirds of the operation did not hire labor from the immediate family. [...] Operators were engaged in all of the jobs of family labor, a practice used by approximately 60 associated with the CSA with a major focus on market- percent of the CSA operations. [...] The seemingly high loss of CSA operations Because of this special position in the larger system, from the sources on our sample list and from our efforts CSA’s offer their operators the opportunity to do to invite operators to participate in the survey suggests 6 Note: There was a lack of responses from minority opera- many operators went out of business.