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Re: Help on Pricing



There is another way of viewing the pricing question. Instead of basing
price on asking how much did we spend to produce these vegetables and
how much do we need to get to cover our costs and make a profit, to ask
instead: What does is the true cost of maintaining and improving our
farm?  What does it take to keep our farm alive and feeding people, and
acting as a center -- an oasis -- or environmental and community health. 

This is a very different starting point, and it can lead to a wide and
surprising variety of answers.

Is CSA just about vegetables -- growing, selling and buying?  Surely the
late Robyn Van En is perking up her spirit ears at that cyber-question.
I feel safe in asserting that she would answer no.  Likewise, I also
must answer no.  It is about a whole lot more.

This is not an incidental point. The whole foundation of a CSA -- what
it is really about and what it is really -- ultimately -- doing, will
proceed from the responses.

If people are using CSA as just another way to sell and buy vegetables,
they might well consider changing the meaning of the C in the acronym:
from Community to Consumer.

Good luck and best wishes, Steven McFadden


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