MARKET GARDEN

In this document, we will give a definition of Market Garden, describe how this system works, describe some case studies, identify key success factors and look briefly at the market in the UK.

Intro

Definition

+>How it works

• Community of individuals

• Community's farm

• Mutual support and share of the risks and benefits of food production between growers and consumers

• Shareholders pay in advance to cover the expenses of the farm and receive/ collect throughout the year weekly boxes of vegetables and fruit

• The 3 possible status:

  1. Industrial and provident society

  2. Limited Company

  3. Charity

• The possible (and preferable) transfer of the principles of cooperative organizations as an ideological basis for CSA (p.5, PDF guide Organisation):

  1. Voluntary and open membership

  2. Democratic member control

  3. Member economic participation

  4. Autonomy and independence

  5. Education, training and information

  6. Co operation among co-operatives

  7. Concern for community

• Options:

  1. Including alternative currencies such as LETS and Time Banking (see New Economics Foundation website)

  2. Opportunity of employing volunteers (WWOOFERs: Willing Workers On Organic Farms)

  3. Integration of people with low income

     1. Accepting payments on a long-term instalment plan

     2. Offering a sliding scale share free

     3. Having a revolving loan fund

     4. Offering free shares, which are usually paid for by members or by organizations who donate a share or by members who agree to pay more for their share, with the provision that extra funds will go towards the free shares

     5. Allowing members to work for some or all of a share, either through farm labour or through administrative and distribution work

     6. Savings groups

     7. Include in the budget a number of shares which are free or subsidised

     8. Get better off members to pay for one or more harvest shares for low income members.

  4. Four activities the farmer can organize:

     1. Open days, festivals and celebrations

     2. Workshops

     3. Conservation work

     4. Visitors on the farm

  5. Pick-Up option: Three ways for people to acquire the harvest:

     1. Collection from the farm

     2. Drop off points

     3. Home delivery

• In the UK, one hectare (2,5 acres): 60 boxes per week

• The quantity of boxes to produce to guarantee a good income for one person: 100 boxes per week

+>Benefits for the Farmer

• Better prices for their crops,

• Gain some financial security

• Relieved of much of the burden of marketing.

+>Benefits for the shareholders

• Reconnection to the land

• Freshness, Quality

• Better prices

• Community building

+>Benefits for the environment

• Less transport

• Less packaging

• Better farming methods

HISTORY

=>Past

• First appeared in Japan 1960’s-1970’s under the name of “Teikei”,

• Spread in Switzerland and Germany.

• 1985, an American brought back the innovation he had discovered to the United States ==> “Community supported Agriculture” (CSA).

• 1990’s: the concept spread in the UK and in Canada.

• 2001: first Community supported farm in France

• 2004: First CSA International Meeting. At the beginning of 2004, there were between 500 and 1000 CSA farms in Japan, 1700 in the United states, 90 in the UK, 60 in Canada and 50 in France. Similar organizations have been found in about 15 countries worldwide.

• Campaigns of associations and NGOs with GM food==>Increased awareness of people on themes related to food.

+>Improvement in UK trends

• In the UK, the organic market has grown rapidly over the last decade; in 2005 retail sales of organic products were worth an estimated £1.6 billion, an increase of 30% on the previous year. Retail sales made through producer owned outlets, such as box schemes, mail order, shops and farmers markets, increased by approximately 11% to £125 million in 2005 (Soil association). But retail sales of organic products through non-producer owned box schemes, mail order and shops grew more rapidly.

• Nearly one in three shoppers knowingly buys organic food, with four out of ten people buying organic food at least once a month

• A clear majority of consumers would prefer to buy a local non-organic option rather than an imported organic one. Reasons given included supporting local producers and reducing 'food miles'. Among those buying organic food everyday support for local producers was still strong but the proportion preferring the imported organic option was almost four times higher than for the sample as a whole. Health was the biggest reason given (cited by 52%) by those who prefer to buy imported organic rather than local non-organic produce.

+> Focus on South West Market

Key problems identified by the Soil Association in 2004 :

• Declining returns to producers and rationalization of the supply base

• Lack of comprehensive and up-to-date market intelligence

• Low consumer awareness

• Lack of producer cooperation

• Lack of alternative markets

• Poor in store presentation of organic products

• Availability of labour

In 2006, the market has evolved but the problems still remain and new challenges appear.

There have been progress in:

• Public awareness

• Availability of organic & regional products

• Prices of organic milk and beef

• Expansion of direct sales

• Number of abattoirs and meat plants available to service local and direct organic sellers

• Alternative markets

There are new threats related to:

• The fact that the price of inputs is increasing more than the selling price

• Rationalisation of supply base, mainly seen in supermarket chain

• The fact that there has been no progress in market intelligence, cooperation and labour supply.

+>Controversy

• At the same time, a study performed by the French General Direction to Health and Food, published in November 2006, shows that pesticides residuals in food are increasing in Europe. They found that 47% of European food contained pesticides residuals, among which 5% are not in compliance with legislation (MLR: Maximal Limit of residuals).

KEY ACTORS IN THE FIELD

+>A key actor in Farming: the Soil Association

Leading environmental association, The Soil Association offers assistance and information for anyone considering going organic. As a charity, they offer some support free of charge. However, by becoming a food and farming member one can benefit from a full range of services. They also organize training sessions.

There are two websites made by The Soil Association of great interest for a CSA farm:

• http://www.soilassociation.org/foodandfarming: where reports on economic trends are available.

• www.cuco.org.uk: official website for CSA networking.

+> CUCO: CUltivating COmmunities

Cultivating Communities supports the development of novel arrangements between farmers and those who eat the food they produce based upon a relationship of mutual support.

The website contains a dynamic guide on how to build a CSA farm.

A part of the key information of that document has been included in the definition section, the other part says:

• The four essential elements of CSA:

  1. Group capable of motivating CSA members

  2. Producer willing and capable of working with public

  3. Informed consumers

  4. Accessible Land

• The list of all the possible sources for funding (PDF 6 financing CSA)

• The alternative to acquiring a land or renting it: The Land Heritage trust

• The Farm tenancy with County Councils (advertised in local and regional press, and in Farmers Weekly)

• The need for Crop Planning and the available sources of information:

  1. The HDRA Cooks Garden planner

  2. The Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association website

• The fact that a CSA is more likely to be successful if the members feel they are involved and taking some responsibility for the way they acquire their food

• Potential supports/partnerships:

  1. Council for the Protection of Rural England: www.cpre.org.uk

  2. Community Action Network: www.can-online.org.uk

  3. Common Ground: www.commonground.org.uk

  4. Countryside Agency: www.countryside.gov.uk

  5. DEFRA: ww.defra.gov.fr

  6. Federation of city farmls and community garden: www;farmgarden.org.uk

  7. Farm retail association: fra@farmshopping.com

  8. Farming and wildlife Advisory Group: www.fwag.org.uk

  9. Food poverty Network: www.sustainweb.org/poverty_index.shtm

  10. Friends of the Earth: www.foe.co.uk

  11. HDRA: www.hdra.org.uk

  12. The national association of farmers market: www.farmersmarkets.net

  13. See appendices for more…

+> DEFRA: “Strategy for Sustainable Farming and Food: Facing the Future”

Since 2002, the government tries to foster a more sustainable development of farming aware of the problems the sector has to face and aware of the fact that future must be different. In the leaflet they wrote for farmers (http://www.defra.gov.uk/farm/policy/sustain/strategy.htm) they said they were ready to spend £500m to improve farming and help existing businesses changing their working methods. The next table gives a good overview of what their strategy is made of, and of the expected outcomes of each policy. (Source: Economic and Statistical Analysis)

KEY SUCCESS FACTORS

• Information : Ability to gather a network and to animate it

• Planning: Ability to adapt crop planning efficiently according to the workforce, finance, size of the network and land available

CASE STUDIES

Findhorn/Cullerne and Earthshare

History

In 1994 a community supported agriculture scheme called EarthShare was established to increase the use of local produce as well as to enhance the quality of the food. Currently it provides more than 70% of the community's fresh food requirements

Production

Fruit and vegetable

Organic milk, cheeses, eggs and meat are produced by Wester Lawrenceton farm which covers a 95-acre area overlooking Findhorn bay and the Moray firth

Farming Methods

Organic and bio-dynamic

Network

200 individual households

Resources

15 acres

CSA Scheme

Sustainable relationship : Membership is for a minimum of one year. People may also choose to have a six-month trial period.

Workshifts: Earthshare encourage its members to participate to labour-intensive tasks. People so far have enjoyed helping and it seems that without that participation, growing 100% organically would not be achieved. Members participating to workshifts are given a discount on the total amount they pay.

The harvest is equally shared between members, and if there is surplus, the surplus is also equally shared. This could be seen as the equivalent for stock-options in companies as it can be a way to motivate people to help at the production.

Choice: Members have the choice between two formats of boxes (small are for two people, standard for a family), and if they want or not to participate to the workshifts.

Transport : For the collection of the production in small or standard boxes at Forres, Findhorn or Elgin, members have organized a shared collection rota, which enables to reduce the environmental cost of the transportation and participates to the creation of social link.

Packaging: The boxes are supposed to be returned to the farmer once the harvest has been delivered.

Information: The contact with the farmer enables people to get information on the food they are eating. The website is an essential element too: it is easier to suscribe to a network through the internet. People can get information on how the production is going and if it is suffering unpredicted event….

Also, a website is more efficient for it enables to reduce printing.

Recipes: If the farm tries to diversify its production, it can also be useful to display recipes for people to know how they use their harvest.

Stroud Community Agriculture Ltd

History

In 2002, when a local organic farm was threatened with failure, a public meeting was called to consider how to support principled agriculture and Stroud Community Agriculture emerged from this meeting.

Production

Fruit and vegetable

Farming methods

Organic and bio-dynamic

Network

110 members

Resources

2 workers for 23 acres

CSA Scheme particularities

Community Co-operative

Stroud Community Agriculture Ltd is incorporated as Community Co-operative, dedicated to promote community supported agriculture.

Another benefit of the Community Co-operative is that it is possible to raise capital by shares, should they wish to, by allowing investment with a return for investors as a profit-sharing organisation. Although this is not likely to happen, it does mean that it would be possible, for example, to raise money to buy land to set up a land trust.”

Consensus building

“Every member has a vote, which puts everyone on an equal basis. Membership spreads the costs and risks involved in business.

Members hold quarterly planning meetings to set the direction for the farm. At an annual general meeting members elect a core group of (currently 8) volunteers to act on the plans set at members meetings.

Decisions are usually reached by consensus. The farm business is owned and controlled by the members, who employ the farmers. The farmers are members too, and sit on the core group, although they cannot take decisions about their own pay.

Community building

• Newsletter

• Leaflets

• Meetings with other groups, associations

• Writing of articles for the press

• Visits of the farm for interested parties and proactively invited groups.

• Work with Hawkwood College who owns the land

Dragon Orchad CSA

History

This is a good example of how CSA can enable a farm to survive and thrive again; But,in this farm situated in West Midlands, near Ledbury.

Norman and Ann Stanier returned to the family fruit farm in 1993 to take over the running of the orchard from Norman's parents. Whilst the growing practices have remained much the same, the markets for the fruit have changed hugely in recent years due to the dominance of supermarkets and imported fruit from around the world.

Production

Apple and pears

Farming methods

Traditional farming methods,

Use of pesticides with parsimony

Network

Resources

CSA Scheme particularities

The interesting elements of that example are:

• Public is varied: 0-95, families, retired, single people…

• Even with a unique product (diversified but unique), the system works.

Sponsoring a tree option

• Tree Sponsorship= £50
  • Planting, staking and rabbit-proofing a fruit tree
  • An annotated orchard plan with your tree marked
  • A visit to Dragon Orchard in Spring 2005 to see the new trees and the opportunity to visit on an Annual Open Day over the next 5 years
  • An information pack with details of the varieties to be planted

Les Jardins de Cocagne, Switzerland, Geneva

Created in 1978 in Geneva, those gardens employ currently 2 full-time and 3 part-time market gardeners on 45 ha for organic production. A thousand people in Geneva are called collaborators, being members of the network. Vegetables belong to the consumers. They are harvested once a week and equally shared in boxes and delivered in about 40 selling points.

At the beginning of the year, the collaborators buy their share, paying an annual fee (which amount is established partly according to the incomes of the collaborator). With a standard share, the collaborator is liable for 4 working days in the farm, 3 for the smallest share.

The members meet in various occasions from AG to gardening. A committee is elected to help the farmers with administration, planning and other issues. This committee meets up every month.

A contract is set up with the named “collaborators”.

They buy a share according to the income of the people benefiting from the box.

Ideally, they are supposed to buy 4 more social shares in the following years.

They have to work for the farm an agreed number of days according to the size of the box they receive. Hosting a selling point compensates for half a working day.

Each member is responsible for coming to an agreed delivery point and taking his/her box.

Each collaborator is invited to attend the General Assembly.

The production is ecological, seasonal and diversified.

Against all the drifts of the agriculture being pressured by globalization and industrialization, the association wants to be “a living alternative to the existing main economical schemes”.

Sources

http://www.stroudcommunityagriculture.org/principles.php