• Common Ground •

I attended the CSA in NYC Mini-Conference run by Just Food that was held on April 8th.Sonia and our Laura Carden serving up Bread.

Among the topics discussed were CSAs and Community Partnerships, CSA Kids, Understanding Your Share Price, Keeping CSA Accessible, Food that is Fair:CSA's and Domestic and International Fair Trade and as many more other sessions.

During the pre-conference farmer session we had a open discussion that included some issuses from the farmer perspective and how Just Food can help farmers make their CSAs more efficient and sustainable.

In the general session WELCOME, Kathy Lawrence and Liz Henderson shared their recollections of Robyn Van En who is credited with bringing the concept of CSA to the US. Robyn died unexpectedly of an asthma event in 1997 when in her early fourties because she didn't have money for health care and thought that the ashtma event would pass and so elected not to seek medical intervention.

Asthma is rising at alarming rates. Millions of poor and minority children in America's cities likely will suffer even higher rates of asthma as the result of a "powerful one-two punch" of higher levels of pollen and changes in the types of molds spurred by global warming, along with unhealthy urban air masses caused by the burning of fossil fuel by cars, trucks and buses, according to a warning issued by Harvard researchers and the American Public Health Association (APHA).

We are not immune from environmental conditions. I believe that Organic Farms can and should be centers of nutrition, education and healing. We all share our most basic need for food. With multinational corporations gaining ever increasing control over seed and food distribution we are facing major issues regarding food soverignty and community food security. When food is completely dehumanized we will be nothing more than a number in some accounting column.

CSA is definitely one path away from the ever descending spiral towards complete dependance on an entirely industrial food supply. The FDA and the USDA and most state policy makers are embracing the 'big money' perspective of "Get bigger or get out". This was the stated position of USDA Secretary Earl Butz in the 70's. Unfortunately with the explosion of interest and market share that organic food has captured, big business is in and has been driving an increasing fear within the organic community that to survive we must get big or get out.

I absolutely and unequivocally disagree and CSA is my basis!

Read 'Fatal Harvest' by Andrew Kimbrell. You won't be able to put it down.



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