To an increasing number of American families the CSA (community supported agriculture) is the answer to the globalization of our food supply. The premise is simple: create a partnership between local farmers and nearby consumers, who become members or subscribers in support of the farm. In exchange for paying in advance—at the beginning of the growing season, when the farm needs financing—CSA members receive the freshest, healthiest produce throughout the season and keep money, jobs, and farms in their own community.
In this thoroughly revised and expanded edition of a Chelsea Green classic, authors Henderson and Van En provide new insight into making CSA not only a viable economic model, but the right choice for food lovers and farmers alike. Thinking and buying local is quickly moving from a novel idea to a mainstream activity. The groundbreaking first edition helped spark a movement and, with this revised edition, Sharing the Harvest is poised to lead the way toward a revitalized agriculture.

"If we want to keep farmers in business, it's time for all of us, ordinary citizens and policy makers alike, to begin learning how that might be done. Sharing the Harvest is a great place to start."
--Joan Dye Gussow, from the Foreword

"Community Supported Agriculture has the possibility, even the likelihood, of transforming community, farming, eating, and economics in the U.S. Elizabeth Henderson's update of Sharing the Harvest offers timely tools for keeping this evolutionary movement on track."
--John Peterson, Angelic Organics

"Sharing the Harvest is an essential book for anyone considering starting a community supported agriculture (CSA) farm and for recent CSA farmers--it is essentially the CSA 'bible'. Sharing the Harvest provides a comprehensive approach to this relatively new social approach to farming, and it may be useful to people who have recently discovered the importance and joy of eating locally-grown food, helping them participate in starting a CSA so they can have an even more direct connection to their food and the farmer who grows it."
--Fred Magdoff, Emeritus Professor of Plant & Soil Science, University of Vermont





"We hunger for a true connection to what's on our plates. We want to know who grows our food and where, how it's grown and why. We want to participate in a food system that is ecological, just, nourishing, and connected to community. The CSA movement offers all this and more. This book is an essential guide to understanding what it's all about, and to making it happen!"
--Jessica Prentice, author of Full Moon Feast

"Sharing the Harvest is an extraordinary book, an opening to a new world in which growing and eating food will be a sharing among humans, between farmers and surrounding communities, not a commercial venture for profit. It is both utopian and practical, inspiring and down-to-earth. It is a treasure, rich with suggestions, exciting for what possibilities it foresees for the human race."
--Howard Zinn

Elizabeth Henderson coauthored The Real Dirt. She farms in Newark, New York, and has been involved in CSA farming for more than 15 years.

Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
Distributor: Chelsea Green Publishing
Publication Date: 11-01-2007
Pages: 320
Measurements: 10in X 8in X .75in X 1.7oz