Community Supported Agriculture

The CSA Network UK is the only organisation working solely to promote community supported agriculture (CSA) across the UK and to support CSA farms. Community supported agriculture is a partnership between farmers and consumers in which the responsibilities, risks and rewards of farming are shared. Thanks to funding from the A Team Foundation and money raised via a crowdfunding campaign, and with the support of the Soil Association, the CSA Network UK was launched in December 2013.

Since April 2015 we have been completely independent with our own project co-ordinator and we also secured core funding from the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation. Over the last two years we have greatly expanded our activities and impact and have seen the CSA movement continue to grow.

We have increased our membership to 45 CSA farms from 26 when we first set up. There have also been a number of new CSAs setting up over the last two years.  This includes:  Steepholding in Devon, Wild Roots Veg in Sussex,  Waterland Organics in Cambridgeshire, Plotgate CSA in Somerset,  Forest & Folk Community Supported Herbalism in Milton Keynes, Chadlington Kitchen Garden in Oxfordshire,  Frith Farm in Yorkshire, Southern Roots Organics in Dorset, Transition Turriefield, Tap O Noth Permaculture and Tomnah'a Market Garden in Scotland, and Gerlan Bach, Torth y Tir, and Old Lands CSA in Wales.

View fullsize

We have set up a mentoring programme for new and existing CSAs, which we are able to provide at a subsidised rate thanks to funding from the Awards for All programme. We have already had great feedback from participants for example Plotgate CSA said the mentoring was incredibly useful and they would thoroughly recommend the service to other CSAs.

We organised a national CSA Network UK Open Day on 1 October 2016 when CSA farms around the country organised public events to help raise awareness of what community supported agriculture is all about. Around 35 farms took part and organised fun activities, such as squash harvesting, raspberry picking, apple pressing, pig feeding, bring a dish meals, farm tours and lots more. We will be running the event again this year and have already received a grant from Celebrate Wales to enable us to give a bursary to CSA farms in Wales that are taking part.

View fullsize

We held CSA networking and training events all over the country including events at Whitmuir Community Farm near Edinburgh, Canalside Community Food near Leamington Spa, Fork & Dig It in Brighton, Sims Hill in Bristol, and Five Acre Farm in Coventry.

We have also just organised a national CSA Sign Up Day on 1 March 2017. This is based on the successful CSA Day run by Small Farm Central in the US. This was a day to promote CSA farms across the country and get new members to sign up at the start of the season when farms need support most. We have not evaluated the day yet but we had lots of great publicity and Camel CSA said they recruited at least 10 new members on top of their existing 40 members.

Overall we are very pleased with our progress, although in order to be sustainable in the long term the network still relies on our income from individual supporters, as well as our farm members. So if you would like to help support the growth of CSAs in the UK and promote a fairer, more transparent model of food production please join us: 

https://communitysupportedagriculture.org.uk/support_us

View fullsize

www.communitysupportedagriculture.org.uk

GAIA Foundation : Seed Sovereignty

The Seed Sovereignty Programme is an ambitious 3-year venture to develop a resilient, agroecological seed system across the UK and Ireland. The Gaia Foundation is working closely with actors across the existing seed movement - including the Soil Association, the Organic Research Centre, the Irish Seed Savers Association, the Seed Cooperative and the Landworkers Alliance - and supporting new and emerging projects across the diverse landscapes of the British Isles. This is the first large-scale collaborative effort of its kind in the UK and Ireland. 

With genetic and agro-biodiversity as its central focus, the programme is underpinned by the principles of seed and food sovereignty - the right to locally adapted seed, available to all.  The programme will support the broad range of agro-ecological farming operations that exist, incorporating all seed grown within these systems. It will encourage skill sharing, networking and collaboration across the UK seed movement, creating a more cohesive and connected counter force to the pressures of industrial agriculture, and the uncertainty ahead as Britain prepares to leave the European Union.  

The programme aims to:

Strengthen existing and establish new regional networks and seed co-operatives through the creation of Regional Hubs, peer-to-peer learning exchanges, networking and the creation of a central online space.

View fullsize

Support farmers and growers to develop their skills and have access to equipment and information via on-farm training in seed production, saving and storage. There will be on-farm variety trials, participatory plant breeding and a seed facilitation fund to give small grants to seed projects needing support. 

Foster a more supportive environment for a biodiverse and ecologically sustainable seed system to thrive by engaging the next generation of farmers and growers, creating a public-awareness and education campaign and engaging key decision-makers at policy level. 

Background

The idea for the programme emerged following the Great Seed Festival in 2014, which, coordinated by The Gaia Foundation,  ‘celebrated the seeds that feed us’ by bringing together a multitude of actors from across the seed movement over one October weekend in central London. With smaller sister festivals and events round the UK, it tapped into a thriving but largely disparate network of committed seed savers and activists from Scotland to Cornwall, Ireland to Wales. Through coordinating the Festival it became apparent that whilst there were a great number of initiatives addressing issues around food – food poverty, waste, community growing schemes, etc – there was relatively little being done in the UK to protect seed, revive seed knowledge and ensure the availability of good quality, organic seed for both commercial and small scale growers.  

The shape of the programme itself has been influenced by the Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security led by USC Canada and now in its sixth year. The Canadian programme reaches from coast to coast and includes participatory plant breeding, support for local seed libraries, training and knowledge exchange, granting to scale up regional seed production, and a national seed trialing program. It has been hugely successful and whilst there will be a number of difference with the UK and Ireland programme, it will benefit greatly from this experience. 

Why is it so critical? 

Almost everything we eat comes from a seed. We cannot have food security without seed security and yet, the importance of seed goes largely unnoticed. Around the world, seed diversity is threatened with 75% of plant genetic diversity lost since the 1990s. Of the 80,000 edible species available for food production, only 150 are currently grown. 

Biodiversity is critical for ensuring a secure and sustainable food system. At a time of climate crisis, there has never been greater urgency to re-build global seed diversity. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization: “Plant genetic diversity is ... one of the central preconditions for food security. It ... provides the genetic traits required to address crop pests, diseases and changing climate conditions”. Diversity in plants also gives us a range of options for raising the healthiest and most productive crops. No matter what changes happen in our food system, we will always be able to adapt if we have enough genetic diversity.

View fullsize

www.gaiafoundation.org