In 1986, the first two CSA projects in the United States began delivering harvest ‘shares’ from
Robyn Van En’s Indian Line Farm in Massachusetts and the Temple/Wilton Community Farm in
New Hampshire.1, 2, 3 As of March 2004, 1,034 CSAs were listed in a national database managed by
the Robyn Van En Center for CSA Resources1 in collaboration with the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA), National Agricultural Library, Alternative Farm Systems Information Center. 4
A reference list of CSA information compiled by the USDA4 lists more than 100 articles and
books, many published in the mid-1990s. CSA has been covered in everything from Mother Jones5
and Mother Earth News6 to the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.7 For more than a
decade, major newspapers have been touting the CSA model as a way to buy farm fresh produce
and build urban-rural partnerships