I told you about CSAs before and now I read about a CSF.
By writersedge
@writersedge (22563)
United States
August 17, 2012 4:00am CST
First there was community supported agriculture (csa) and now I just read about community supported foraging (csf).
Community supported agriculture helps the farmer by paying him or her (or them) early in the season so the farmer(s) can buy seeds, get fertilizer, afford gas if s/he uses a tractor. Whatever else they have or need like a green house that they have to keep going. Instead of taking out a loan that can get the farmer in debt before the farmer even starts, the farmer contracts with you and you prepay. The one I'm in is for 20 weeks.
The community supported foraging sounds like an awesome idea. A forager would know how much to pick. There are some foragers who supply restaurants, but it's hard to know how much to pick and if anyone will order the foraged items. So a lot could get thrown out. But if someone contracted with you for foraged food for so many weeks and picked it up each week, then you would know how much to pick. A lot less waste and you could keep the job better. Whereas for a restaurant, an area, people might like one thing and not another so the next year you get an order for fiddle head ferns, but most of the rest of what you have, the restaurants won't order (except maybe berries) because they had to throw so much out. Each week you would have to invest time and probably print outs and/or web pages to explain what the foods are and how they can be used. So the cost would come in for transporting to a distrobution point, photocopies of food nutrition, information, websites pages that you would have to update. Plus your gathering time, transport time, containers like bags or berry boxes, etc. Also taxes. There was a team of gatherers who owned 100 acres to forage in.
So would a csf appeal to you as a gatherer or a consumer? What would you like to have for food coming from a csf? What would you like to gather for a csf? Would you join both a csf and a csa or just one or the other? Would you do a combination of csa and csf (that would be a new one) where you grew some food to sell and gathered others? About how much land do you think you would need? Did I forget any expenses besides paying yourself an income above?
2 people like this
3 responses
@deazil (4730)
• United States
17 Aug 12
These are both very interesting concepts! People banding together to help each other, partly because the government does nothing to help and partly because it makes sense. I would prefer to be a consumer. And I love fiddleheads! I've heard of people that forage for wild grown produce like berries, radishes, asparagus, fiddleheads, mushrooms, etc. and sell them. But I never knew if it had a name. And as for csa & csf, I never heard of them before now. It's fascinating. And so much help and incentive to the farmer. Staying out of debt is a real problem for some farms. I have always thought that not enough is done for the farmers of this country and yet at one time they were considered by many to be the backbone of America. That's why I try to buy local products whenever I can. There's a lot lot of farms in Western Ma. Interesting and very informative discussion. 
@stringer321 (5682)
• Kiryat Ata, Israel
17 Aug 12
This discussion is very informative and it opens up my eyes .It says there is another way than just buy from the market for high prices and bad quality crops. I am 30 years old and still haven't heard about Csa and Csf. Everything is grown with pesticides and fertilizers. :(
1 person likes this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
18 Aug 12
I'm glad both of you liked this discussion. I'm a consumer/customer for a CSA. I hadn't heard of CSF until I was looking for recipes for yellow dock seeds and there was a recipe from a CSF. Then I researched and found there were 4 and one was here from at least as far back as 2006. As a forager who tried to keep up with the times, I was surprised. Where have I been?
@stringer321 (5682)
• Kiryat Ata, Israel
17 Aug 12
It's the first time I read about CSA.
The good thing in CSA is that you don't have to be a farmer to participate in the growing process of the food. You just gather with people that need the crops and give the farmers money and he shows you what he needs the money for , what he buys , what he does with the money and the growing process is transparent , no pesticides , no fertilizers and no poison.
That thing makes me so angry because in Israel , I didn't even hear about CSA.
About CSF , the closest thing I did was to pick up fruits from trees around the neighborhood that are not belong to anyone and eat the fruits with a friend.
The fact we don't have awareness for such simple and natural ideas just shows how interest people have to get rich and share no one. It's sad.
1 person likes this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
18 Aug 12
In our country, every year, many farmers quit farming. Owing too much money to banks and having a bad crop year. They can't keep going.
CSAs are nice. I think CSFs would be nice, too.
I was we had something for our dairy farmers. They don't let them sell directly to us here. They have to sell to a middle man. That middle man pasturizes and homoginizes the milk. The middle man pays very little money, but charges us a lot for the milk. Many farmers can't afford to feed their cows with the little money the middle man pays them. So they have to quit farming. Some after many generations.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
18 Aug 12
Here, the farmer is the victim. One state is loosing 32 farms a year and they only have 92 farms left. The cost of grain is going up, but the middle man won't pay the farmer more for milk.
1 person likes this
@stringer321 (5682)
• Kiryat Ata, Israel
18 Aug 12
In my country , the crops also make some way until they get to the markets , distribution does cost money and the customer is the victim.
@GreenMoo (11833)
•
17 Aug 12
I'd never heard of Community Supported Foraging before. It certainly sounds a lot more sensible for the forager to have a guaranteed market before going out picking, and from a customer's perspective it sounds like a great idea too. Not everyone has time to go out picking themselves, nor the knowledge.
1 person likes this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
18 Aug 12
Very true.
I was surprised when I typed in foraged yellow dock seeds to see a recipe from a CSF. Then I researched and found about 4 CSFs online. That's only 4 in the USA, so not many, but it's starting. I was even more surprised that one has been going since 2006. Where was I?
