History and Philosophy of CSA
While early CSA projects were initiated in Japan and Chile in
the 1970s, CSAs in the US were mainly inspired by the biodynamic
farming tradition that evolved in Europe aftr World War II [9].
Austrian Rudolf Steiner developed this spiritual-ethical-ecological
approach to agriculture, food production and nutrition, subsequently
brought to the US from Switzerland by Jan Vander Tuin [9-10]. Th
fist two CSAs in the United States were started in Massachusetts and
New Hampshire in the mid-1980s, and they are still in operation today
[1,9]. CSAs embody Steiner’s vision of a diversifid, balanced farm
ecosystem that generates health and fertility from within, seeking
to satisfy a triple bottom line—ecological, social, and economic
sustainability [10].