CSAs can transform Iowa's farm economy -- and take its sandwiches to the next level
By Kurt Michael Friese
Here in Iowa, the farmers markets are just emerging from hibernation, and with them the CSAs. Community-supported agriculture is not a new idea, but it certainly has been gaining ground over the past few years as ideas such as "local" and "sustainable" migrate from the fringes to the center.

For the uninitiated, CSAs operate a lot like magazine subscriptions. You find one whose content you like, pay your money up front, and receive weekly allotments of fresh local produce, dairy, eggs, flowers, and sometimes meat. CSAs offer a great way to "go local," and they present you with new surprises each week throughout the growing season (which around here is about 20 weeks long).

At least as important is the mutual assumption of risk. The farmer gets a cash infusion before the season starts when s/he really needs it, and if there's a flood or a drought or a swarm of locusts, the farmer and the CSA members share the loss the same way they would share the bounty if it were all to go a better way.

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