Shared Harvest——Our CSA

real food, real farmers, real community

An old Chinese proverb has it that the common people value food as they value the heavens – above all else.  In an era of rapid urbanization and industrialization, food safety has become one of our most pressing problems. So-called ‘modern cultivation’ – which is industrialized and chemical-dependent – is gradually replacing China’s centuries-old agrarian culture. More and more, we do not recognize the importance of the earth’s life-sustaining resources: clean air, water, and soil.  During this modernization process, the farmers who provide our food do not make enough money to maintain a dignified livelihood.  The over-use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, in addition to pollution from animal-raising operations, has compromised the health and safety of our food and our farmers.  Agriculture has become the largest contributor to non-point-source pollution in China.  We cannot use a purely economic lens to evaluate our agricultural system; its significance vastly exceeds its strictly ‘economic’ attributes, as it provides the basis for healthy human existence.  In the face of food safety problems, environmental pollution, and the decline of village life, we cannot help but feel alarmed. However, we believe that through collective action and the sharing of knowledge, we can change the present and work towards a better future.  The success of our social enterprise relies upon the active support and participation of local communities.

一、Our CSA

The concept of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) first emerged in the 1970s in Japan and Sweden. In Japan, for example, consumers eager to find safe food and re-connect with the natural world sought out cooperative relationships with farmers who hoped to establish a stable consumer base while using healthy farming practices. Together they developed the teikei (‘mutual aid’) system, in which customers pay for a year’s subscription, or share, of the farmer’s produce in advance. Today, the concept of CSA, which initially entailed collective purchasing and cooperative economy, has spread across the world and adopted new variations and forms. “Community Supported Agriculture” is a system in which the members of a given community and local farmers promise to support one another by sharing both the risks and the harvest of the growing season. Farmers, on their part, assume the responsibility of caring for the soil and employing ecological farming methods.  In the CSA model, both farmers and consumers are ‘shareholders’ in a piece of land invested with hope – land that will nurture and sustain them, and which they will work to nurture and sustain in turn.  In the Shared Harvest program, consumers, producers, and staff members are all shareholders, assuming this title’s corresponding rights and responsibilities. All three parties work together to move this undertaking forward, creating a positive feedback loop.

二、About our team

 “Shared Harvest” is a non-profit, service-oriented social enterprise established in 2012 by a group of young people with a strong interest in promoting ecological agriculture and sustainable lifestyles. To address increasingly serious food safety problems, we advocate four principles of organic agriculture: ecology, health, fairness, and care. These principles guide the management and practices of our CSA. We advocate for healthy and natural lifestyles; and we seek to reestablish harmonious rural-urban development and relations of mutual trust across the rural-urban divide.

Introducing the Executive Director

Shi Yan, the executive director of Shared Harvest (Beijing) Ecological Agriculture Service Ltd, received her PhD from the Renmin University School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Tsinghua University’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences.  In 2008, in order to learn more about the CSA model, Shi Yan spent six months working on a farm in the US. After returning to China, she helped to found Little Donkey Farm, and has been consistently involved in promoting the CSA model and the development of sustainable agriculture. She has also published Chinese translations of three related books: Farmers of Forty Centuries: Organic Farming in China, Korea, and Japan; Sharing the Harvest: A Citizen’s Guide to Community Supported Agriculture; and Slow Money.

三、Putting down roots in the countryside

Years of practice and experience have taught us that, in the movement to reconnect the cities and the countryside, the role of the farmer has no substitute. As producers of food itself, farmers undoubtedly play the most important role in the food sector;at the same time, they hold wisdom about their land based in experience – and it is this wisdom that is a clear manifestation of the diversity of rural China’s cultures of sustainability.  However, halting use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides increases the risks and labor taken on by producers. Our goal is to ensure that farmers maintain their dignity and livelihood, while also gaining the support and understanding of consumers.  If consumers are aware of where the food on their table comes from, establish close relationships with farmers, and offer words of encouragement, we believe engaging in the work of agriculture will have more dignity and meaning to producers.

So we choose to trust family farmers. After all, it is only through their sustained participation can we have truly sustainable agriculture. The Shared Harvest program is one of direct cooperation with family farmers; we consult with farmers to draft a planting plan and establish production standards, and cultivation takes place on the farmers’ own land. After guaranteeing ecological farming methods and meeting basic costs, we return the majority of profits to the farmers and our core CSA members. Our mission is to organize and provide services to farmers and customers, to promote fairness and trust amongst both parties, and to cut out the middleman by ensuring that farmers can deliver healthy produce directly into the hands of consumers.

The team at Shared Harvest has already rented a small courtyard house in the village of Mafang, located in the town of Xiji, Tongzhou district. We have made this house our office and are already at work. We are beginning this project first by cooperating with a few family farmers, and will gradually establish a teachable model that other farmers can emulate. We are using our specialized knowledge to train farmers to supervise themselves, establish cooperative relations, and utilize their diverse cultural knowledge. In the future, we will gradually expand the scope of our model so that fruit, grain, and tofu producers as well as woodworkers and bricklayers can also participate.

四、A harvest of trust

The Shared Harvest team has accumulated a rich store of technical knowledge about sustainable cultivation. For instance, team members are knowledgeable in ecological practices such as pest management without the use of chemical pesticides. They are also skilled in the basic logistics of running a CSA, for instance ensuring that each week’s harvest can meet the needs of customers and ensuring customers receive the freshest possible vegetables. The best food is local and seasonal. We are confident that by collaborating with experienced farmers, we can deliver healthy, pesticide-free produce to all of Shared Harvest’s CSA members.

Lang Guangshan (Uncle Lang) is a farmer from Mafang Village with over 20 years of experience growing vegetables.  Uncle Lang and his wife cultivate over sixty mu of land (about ten acres).  Two years ago, due to the strenuous labor and low income from vegetable sales, the couple switched to growing field crops such as millet and corn. Uncle Lang’s son, Lang Dongjing, has been extremely supportive of our efforts and willing to participate in the CSA program. We find his encouragement of our efforts to deliver healthy produce to consumers very heartening.

五、2012 CSA member enrolment plan

In becoming a Shared Harvest CSA member, you enter into a cooperative relationship with the producer in which you both share the risks inherent in the growing process. At the beginning of the planting season, the consumer pays in advance for the entirety of their share of that season’s produce. Based on the number of shares purchased, the farmer plans the amount and variety of vegetables to grow, as well as what supplies are needed. At regular intervals, the farmer delivers produce to each customer’s house and guarantees the health and safety of all the goods. Throughout the production process, all of the risks are jointly shared by both parties. CSA members can visit the farm to observe or to work alongside the farmers whenever they please. We will also organize farm activities, publish reports on our work, update consumers with news about the farmers, and promote healthy, environmentally-friendly lifestyles.

Shared Havest CSA Membership（September,2012—April,2013）

Contact Us:

Phone：13910693567（Bob）

Email：fenxiangshouhuo@126.com

Website：http://tianye.co

Weibo：@分享收获CSA

Address：Mafang Village, Xiji, Tongzhou District,Beijing