In anticipation of national media publicity about Community Supported
Agriculture (CSA), we are compiling a national listing/database of CSA farms
(USA only at this time). To be available in print (by state) and on the
web, we need to finalize the list by November 10.
The potential to generate consumer interest in CSAs is very large. The
public will be directed to a web site or a mailing address to 'find a CSA
farm near you.' Any CSA not on the list will miss an opportunity to have
potential shareholders find them. Although response by the public is
impossible to predict, we anticipate thousands of snail-mail or web hits. I
am excited by the 'teachable moments' this could generate with respect to
the general public and our food system.
Therefore, I am calling on all CSA farms to contact my office by November 8.
Those 450 or so that have already been in touch, no need to contact us
again. Please see below for the exact information we are requesting. We
will not list any CSA until we have their permission to do so.
I have been working with about a dozen organizations nationwide that
maintain lists of CSA farms, and we have contacted all CSAs on the lists
these groups have shared with me. If you maintain a list of CSA farms,
please send that to me electronically. We will credit all organizations
that share lists with us.
If you know of CSA farms or know the farmers, please consider one of the
following:
1) e-mail me (san@nal.usda.gov) with farm name and contact information;
2) call my voice mail 24 hours a day (301-504-6425) with farm name and
contact information;
3) go to the web and fill out the form there
(http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/csa/csaform.htm);
4) ask the CSA to e-mail or call me or send a FAX to 301-504-6409 or go to
the web and submit a form (see below for information we are requesting).
My apologies for the RUSH on this. I do not expect to be able to respond to
replies to this message except those that include CSA information. I will
be in touch later with more details. MANY THANKS for anything you can do to
put me in touch with CSA farms in the USA.
We have also set up a web site dedicated to CSA resources
(http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/csa). Check it out and let us know if there
are resources that need to be there! NOTE THAT the listing at that site was
old, and has been disconnected. We expect to post the new data any day now.
A note about the WE in this message. The Sustainable Agriculture Network
(SAN--the outreach arm of the SARE program) and the Alternative Farming
Systems Information Center (AFSIC) at the National Agricultural Library, are
working with the Robyn Van En Center for CSA, with other Sustainable
Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) personnel and with USDA
Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension (CSREES) to compile and
make this national listing available in print and on the web. I've done
practically nothing else in the past month.
See http://www.sare.org
http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/csa
http://www.reeusda.gov
WE ARE REQUESTING THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION FROM CSA FARMS. Fill in only
what you want published. At this time, we will not publish information
about the organic certification status of the CSA.
CSA Listing
Preferred format for e-mail reply is address format without the item
descriptors (except FAX).
Farm Name
Operator Name
Address
Phone
FAX
e-mail
URL
Area/county served
Permission to list? YES NO
Certified Organic? YES NO
Many thanks again to everyone else helping on this project!
Andy
Andy Clark, Ph.D.
SAN Coordinator
c/o AFSIC, Room 304
National Agricultural Library
10301 Baltimore Ave.
Beltsville, MD 20705-2351
PH: 301-504-6425
FAX: 301-504-6409
san@nal.usda.gov
http://www.sare.org
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