Organic Centre Wales (OCW)’s Better Organic Business Links programme* (BOBL) is running a project designed to support Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) schemes in Wales. ORC has been engaged to research similar schemes from around the world and to produce a survival guide based on the experiences of CSAs of different types.
On 14th July 2012, OCW and the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens (FCFCG) jointly hosted a Welsh CSA Gathering in St David’s in Pembrokeshire. The event was very well attended and was the first time that some of the members of the various schemes had met each other. This opportunity for face to face networking was one of the aims of the gathering and Tony Little from OCW and Rupert Dunn of FCFCG also took the opportunity to set out the support available to CSAs from both organisations.
Other contributions came from Mick Marston of the Soil Association and the CSA representatives themselves. The event included a farm walk and superb lunch at Gerald Miles’ at Caerhys where the Caerhys Organic Community Agriculture (COCA) scheme is based. Discussions were held on scaling up production, key points for success, and setting up from scratch. It is still early days for the CSA network in Wales but the enthusiasm and commitment of the audiences is high.
