In a 2003 study (Gilbert et al.) published by the Future Harvest – Chesapeake Alliance for
Sustainable Agriculture (CASA), researchers investigated 44 small farms in the US Mid-Atlantic
region considered to be successful and sustainable. All surveyed farms direct marketed to some
extent and many had a CSA operation or were vendors at farmers’ markets. The study found that
these farm enterprises share some typical commonalities in their management, attitude and
agricultural practices. The authors focused their work on 10 essential characteristics. They are shown
in Table 1.