Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
At the start of 2022, Tyfu Dyfi issued a call for Expressions of Interest (EoI) from growers or farmers with ideas for how we might support the establishment of one or more community led agricultural enterprise(s) in the Biosphere area.
Often known as Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), various models exist, ranging from close partnerships between individual farmers and their local communities, to much more informal arrangements between consumers and growers. The defining characteristic is partnership between farmers / growers and consumers in which the responsibilities, risks and rewards of farming are shared. The main principle is that the community supports the grower through direct connection. There are no ‘middlemen,’ what is produced on the smallholding / farm goes directly to the consumer.
A cluster of eight local enterprises responded to our call expressing interest in entering further into partnership with the local community and establishing additional CSA. Click on the button on the left to see their location and find out more about each individual site.
Each of these enterprises received resourcing from Tyfu Dyfi and agreed to participate in enabling greater cooperation between agroecological producers across the Biosphere area. In practice, this means we have created a separate CSA cluster web presence on the Biosphere website where we:
-
signpost the various options open to people in the Biosphere area who want to get involved in CSA; either by helping grow their own food and/or volunteering in support of local producers
-
engage in a process to enable the sharing of some of the more expensive items of machinery purchased under Tyfu Dyfi.
If you are an individual living in (or visiting) the Dyfi area and are interested in getting involved in local growing, or if you are a local grower and want to know more, have a look at the CSA cluster website.