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Linking farmers and consumers in Wales

We are all familiar with the idea of farmers working in partnership, but what about partnerships between producers and their local communities? This is the big idea behind Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and it’s one that is catching on. The exact nature of the partnership is different for every project, but they all involve community members making some kind of investment in their local farm businesses and therefore sharing the risks as well as the benefits of food production. Sustainable and low input systems are very much part of the CSA ethos and organic farmers and growers are very often at the heart of these projects.

The BOBL project is currently supporting five established projects but has plans to promote and explain the concept to a much wider audience. We have a full programme of work planned over the next 18 months; this includes holding public meetings, arranging networking events for projects and providing one to one advice.

We also want to help projects understand what motivates people to join CSA schemes so they know how to attract, and keep, more members. One thing community food projects can do immediately is register on the Soil Association’s ‘In Your Area’ webpage, which is designed to help communities find a project to join. Just visit
www.soilassociation.org/inyourarea.

For more information and to be kept up to date with our CSA related activities contact or call 01970 621632.

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