Economic viability
Consistent with other studies (Cantor and Strochlic 2009), we found CSA to be a crucial direct-toconsumer marketing channel for those small- and medium-scale farmers involved. Farms with
CSAs on average obtain 58 percent of their gross sales from the CSA market channel, and 48
percent of CSAs obtain 70 percent or more of their gross sales from CSA. Percentage of gross
sales made up by CSA sales is negatively correlated with acres in cropland (r = -0.2) and gross sales
(r = -0.17), showing that smaller-scale farmers tend to be more dependent on CSA as a market
channel. This pattern also exists at the national level (Lass et al. 2003).