Community Supported Agriculture - Does it work?
If you ever wanted evidence that community food systems are riding the wave of the future, you need look no further than Food Connect. Brisbane's premier community food system, Food Connect now boasts around 75 core and around 30 peripheral farmers supplying fresh, regionally-grown food to something like 1000 city subscribers.
Bringing the good news to those at the first of the TransitionSydney Cafe Conversations at Glebe's Fair Trade Cafe was Robert Pekin, coordinator of the ambitious social enterprise. He reported that, despite the recession, trading has increased by 86 percent this past year, yielding something like $50,000 turnover a week. Story by Russ Grayson follows...
Approximately 80 percent of participating farmers, from 12 geographical bioregions in the Brisbane hinterland, are organic, with around 65 percent of those certified organic. Others produce organically but have chosen to remain outside the certification scheme. Asked what will happen to them when the Australian Standard for organic products is introduced later this year — it will ban the use of the term 'organic' for uncertified products — Robert said that there is probably sufficient trust between farmers and city subscribers for them to have faith that what they are receiving in their boxes of produce has been ethically produced. According to Robert, produce comes from both mixed and specialist farms, such as those specialising in watermelon or pumpkin.
MAKING CONNECTIONS
Food Connect does just that — it connects producers with eaters in the city. Weekly boxes of fresh produce are delivered to 75 distribution points around Brisbane. These are the 'City Cousins', usually private households from where members collect their boxes of fresh, local foods. This type of community food system is known as a CSA — Community Supported Agriculture — and it is popular in Japan, the USA and the UK.
And who buys from Food Connect? According to Robert's partner, Emma-Kate Rose, it has been the early adopters in society but it has spread to demographics such as 25 to 45 year olds, with a high preponderance of females and younger professionals. This reinforces the observation based on participants in the Randwick City Council Sustainable Gardening and Living Smart courses that it is people with young families who are the early joiners because they are concerned about their children's health and the world they will inherit. Emma works as Food Connect's Community Animator, stimulating and working with members and the larger community.
PRICY ORGANICS? NOT FROM FOOD CONNECT
And price? Organic food has a reputation for being expensive.
It's not necessarily so, says Robert. He estimates that the price of organic food through Food Connect averages 80 percent that of similar food sold in Coles. This, while at the same time Food Connect's farmers receive around two to three times their usual rate. According to Robert, business decisions are made based on the Permaculture design principles (http://permacultureprinciples.com/).
So, what has Robert and Emma — and their Food Connect colleagues — learned about food systems? First, the CSA model works in Australia. Second, the surprising lesson was that it is unwise to rely on volunteers. All of the 40 people that work at Food Connect are paid, both full and part-time staff. This — and paying staff well — makes for a more reliable operation, says Robert.
HOW TO START A CSA
Robert recommends assessing the local food scene before venturing into the development of a CSA. Know what existing organisations are doing, he says.
Next step — get a core group together, perhaps six to ten people, and find funding. Then it's time to recruit members and find farmers in the region. Robert recommends being ready for your first delivery within two to three months. From there, it's a matter of scaling up.
AND WHAT OF SYDNEY?
There have been two attempts to set up CSAs in Sydney. The first foundered because the organic farm, down at Berry, was just too far from the city. The second ceased after the farmer, who was based at Mangrove Creek north of the metropolitan area, moved interstate.
Interestingly, the potential for CSAs to become a market for farmers was identified in a Victorian Department of Agriculture report some years ago. The producer of the report consulted with the Australian City Farms & Community Gardens Network (www.communitygarden.org.au), among others, including farmers. He found a total of six CSAs operating at the time, located in NSW, Victoria and Tasmania. His conclusion was that the CSA model represents a viable market for farmers but that farmers lack the communication, marketing and community liaison skills need for them to make a go of it. The Food Connect model effectively gets around this limitation.
THE BRISBANE TRANSITION INITIATIVE
Emma-Kate Rose is a participant in the Brisbane Transition Hub, a new organisation with a similar role to TransitionSydney.
Like their Sydney counterparts, the Brisbane hub has moved beyond the doom and gloom environmental discourse into one which actively enlists the community to create a different future. They have already met a number of times and received favourable coverage on Faith Thomas' sustainability program on Brisbane's Eco Radio.
THE CONVERSATIONS
The TransitionSydney Cafe Conversation attracted a range of people with varying interests in food. Included in participants was one man seriously considering setting up a CSA in the city as well as one from Sydney Organic Buyers (http://www.organicbuyersgroup.org/), a community food buying group supplying what they call "affordable organic food" in Leichhardt, Kirribilli and Randwick, and who are eager to expand into other areas as soon as they receive sufficient local interest.
Other participants of note include Dave Arnold from Violet Town in Victoria. Dave produces the annual permaculture calendar and diary (http://permacultureprinciples.com/resources_calendar.php) and works with Richard Telford in website development for the Permaculture Design System. Others in attendance included Michelle Margulis, who lives in Sydney's Inner West and who is developing an edible home garden. She had just installed a large rainwater tank before coming to the TransitionSydney Cafe Conversation. Tanya. another of the young women at the Cafe Talk, assists at Thoughtful Foods, the UNSW food cooperative that is open to the general public. Others included TransitionSydney's Peter Driscoll, two young US women, one researching the transition movement in Australia, and Randick Council's Sustainability Education Office, Fiona Campbell.
There will be more TransitionSydney Cafe Conversations and they will be notified on the TransitionSydney website:
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