Community Supported Agriculture – A threat to retailers?

The main objectives of the Cloughjordan Community Supported Agriculture is to create and sustain a co-operative of members who will benefit from the produce of the company’s landholdings. It shall also provide education and training in food production as a life skill.  It will facilitate the development of food security in Ireland and the localisation of supply.  It will eliminate the marketing risks and costs for the producer.  It shall act as a stimulus to other Community Supported Agriculture Projects.  The produce will be delivered trough Bio-dynamic agriculture methods which is an organic and ecological farming system.  It will provide a resource for the investigation of and dissemination of information regarding low-input, organic and bio-dynamic methods of agriculture.  It will also provide for those who may be in need in the community. Bio-dynamic agriculture has focused on open pollination of seeds (permitting farmers to grow their own seed) and the development of locally adapted varieties.  The seed stock is not controlled by large, multinational seed companies.

This project is running for over a year now and as one of the farm members, I can vouch for the benefits of this life venture. As a family of four we receive all the vegtables and eggs we need, as well as most of our milk. All of the produce is organic but, there is also a huge community aspect. As there is plenty to go around, and with the fact that we are all owners of the farm, there is a natural tendency to take only what you need.

Field of Oats - Cloughjordan Community Farm

Polytunnel full of tomatoes - Cloughjordan Community Farm

Peggy Sue cloughjordan community farm

Retail Supply Chain Vs CSA

Now that I have introduced the farm, let me compare this model to the traditional Farmer to Retail model. Note, that currently Farmers in Ireland are been pushed by Retail giants for margin.

retail-supply-chain-versus-community-supported-agriculture

On the above Diagram on the left is a typical supply chain for Retailers, as you will notice there are four steps in the process before the produce gets to the consumer, each step in the process takes a slice of the “money pie” as supplied by the consumer.  Typically, the end product is not produced locally, for example apples may come from as far as South America. This is not always the case as some vegetables and eggs, may come from the UK, however the carbon footprint would more than a community supported farm, as even if the farm was local the rest of the supply chain may not be. The community farm, in the case of cloughjordan community is approximately four kilometres from the village. Another comparison is packaging, whereby packaging would be added to most vegetables, with the community farm there is no packaging. A CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm is also designed to be sustainable, this mean that it will grow naturally and within the second year will not need to buy animals or seeds for the following year, therefore reducing the operating expences for the second year, despite been capable of producing more food.  As I mentioned already there is also a community and learning aspect to the farm, this is much needed given the knowledge we have lost in the past few decades, and the fragmentation of communities. By creating a sustainable food supply, this reduces the sustainability to economic shocks. The CSA model especially in current times gives a perfect balance between Economy and Ecology, as the cost of producing food is greatly reduced, less land intensive farming methods (as artificial fertilizers and pesticides) and biodiversity is encouraged.

This now brings me to my question, does this model pose a threat to retailers? My answer to this is partially Yes, and partially No.

On the Yes side, people have less disposable income, therefore setting up of a community farm, or even small individual gardens. It may be in Farmers interest to participate by leasing out their land to such a projects, instead of been squeezed by the Retail giants, this would erode the power that they have over the farmers. As part of the deal the farmers family may even recieve produce for free. There appears to be a trend of home gardens, and a popularity with allotments. There are even online social networks that share and encourage Grow it yourself Ireland and MyFolia. Furthermore, on Irish TV you have Corrigans City Farm, where a celebrity chef Richard Corrigan, has teamed with with Cork City council and a team of volunteers to learn about sustainable season food through “doing”.

On the No side, there would need a lot more people to participate in such projects to be of a magnitude where they could loosen the grip of the retail giants. The retail giants could also drop the price of their vegetables to below cost and subsidise this loss with their portfolio of products that a bio-dynamic farm cannot produce in order to compete. Furthermore, if and when economic growth again returns to Ireland, people will forget the bad times and slip back into old habits of consumerism.

From a personal point, I think it is very important for the people of Ireland to become more self-sustainable, as a small open economy we are wide open to economic shocks and participating in CSA or growing your own we can insulate ourselves from these economic shocks to a certain extent.