About the CSA Movement
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has a longstanding history of creating a mutually beneficial, collaborative experience between the land, the farmers, and the consumers. Individuals pay a set amount of money in exchange for a farm share that provides regular offerings of what is grown on the farm throughout the season. There are as many types of CSA programs as there are farms that operate them. At Woven Roots Farm, we offer market-style weekly pickups during which members fill their own bag or basket with the selection of produce we’ve harvested, and participate in various seasonal Pick-Your-Own options.
As we celebrate 13 years of our CSA journey, we feel the importance of sharing the full origin story of the CSA movement, removing the Euro-centric white male dominant narrative, and uplifting the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) who were instrumental in the foundational work of Community Supported Agriculture.
In the 1960s, Dr. Booker T. Whatley – a Black author, horticulturist, scientist, and professor at Tuskegee University (Tuskegee, AL) – introduced the concept of a “Clientele Membership Club,” in which club members paid an upfront fee to pick their own produce throughout the season, enabling farmers to avoid the strain of a bank loan. This method was a distinct way to support the disturbing loss of Black farms by creating direct-market pathways. This technique led to the CSA model as well as the Pick-Your-Own model - two key components to the success of small farms here today.
In tandem with Dr. Whatley’s research on this continent, formidable work was growing in Japan based on their long-standing history of economic cooperatives and growing concerns about the industrialization of food. A group of Japanese women* began the Teikei (which translates to “cooperation”) system based on mutually supportive consumer-producer relationships. Elsewhere in Europe during the ’60s, financially cooperative and equitable models were also being created by farmers, and in Chile, the Allende Land Reform and collective agriculture movement were in motion.
*If you know any specific names of these women, please let us know!
Due to tremendous community organizing based in the embodiment of mutual aid this accessibility has shifted and continues to do so. We ask that this mutuality moves deeper to be cared for by wealth redistribution, with an acknowledgment of accountability for how this shifting of resources is instrumental in repair within a system that is designed to create disparity. The way we create a local economy is an opportunity to build just equity within communities.
Solidarity shares are free or low-cost sliding CSA shares, inclusive of education and communal knowledge sharing. They are a way for farms, especially those run by marginalized farmers, to practice mutual aid with their communities, which is a central part of food sovereignty. This moves beyond an offering into the care of our interconnectedness, and honors that lack of access is not synonymous with lack of worth.
Finca Luna Búho and Woven Roots Farm’s collaborative initiative, Seeding Solidarity, is born from this understanding of collective care. We stand with all of those who inspired our own equity work and hope to be a model for others to follow.
