Community supported agriculture (CSA) is the intentional creation of community around food growing and is a business model in which the risks and the rewards of farming are shared between the grower and members of the community. The talk will outline the risks and rewards of CSA and briefly discuss some of the different models applicable in the UK which span a wide range of types, scales and sizes of production. CSA is an autonomous movement in the UK and depends crucially on networking for mutual support. A CSA network is being established which seeks to provide information and support to CSAs and which will help grow the movement in the UK. Because community is embedded at the heart of CSA it is uniquely placed to re-engage people in agriculture, local food and in the seasonal farming calendar. It is also well placed to further engage people in issues of food sovereignty, climate change and transition technologies; all at the heart of the major challenges to food production in the coming century.
