- Author: Eve Hightower
On an unusually cool July morning at the UC Davis Student Farm, students are harvesting tomatoes and other produce for the farm’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) membership program. The CSA baskets are pre-sold to members of the campus community and are among the ways students participate in the campus food system.
“It’s more than a way to sell food. It builds community, and that’s a powerful thing for students to learn,” said Raoul Adamchak, who coordinates the CSA and the Market Garden where the produce is grown.
Over the years, those involved in UC campuses’ food systems have garnered powerful lessons from...
- Author: Penny Leff
Tomatoes grow fine in my Sacramento backyard. I can usually count on plenty of basil, more zucchini than the neighbors will take, some snow peas, chard and kale, a few small peppers and eggplants and whatever salad greens survive the slugs (in other words, lots of arugula). We have oranges and grapefruit, but I wouldn't even try to grow peaches or apricots. It takes a farmer to grow peaches. It takes a good farmer to grow good peaches. It takes a good farmer and good weather to grow Blenheim apricots.
Instead of planting a peach tree, I joined a fruit community supported agriculture (CSA) program, promising to pay $15 a week for a...
- Author: Eve Hightower
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) – a way of buying fresh produce and other foods directly from farmers – is growing rapidly in California’s Central Valley, according to a newly published study in the California Agriculture journal.
Membership in the CSAs surveyed for the study increased from an estimated 672 in 1990 to 32,938 in 2010.
The growth in Central Valley CSAs is one part of a bigger movement toward stronger direct relationships between farmers and consumers, said Ryan Galt, UC Davis assistant professor in the Department of Human and Community Development and co-author of
