The growing popularity of community supported agriculture programs (or CSAs), in which people buy shares of a local farm’s harvest, has led some city dwellers to give up their cubicles for a career in farming. Take Denise and Cameron Anderson, for example. The former urban professionals now run a CSA called 2silos Farm outside Columbus, OH, that sells farm-fresh vegetables in the summer and pasture-raised meat and eggs year-round.

Not Bad for a Hobbyist 

Like more than a third of U.S. farm operators today, the Andersons did not start out in agriculture; raising chickens and selling the eggs at farmers markets was essentially a hobby for Denise (one that provided supplemental income) in 2003. But when Cameron lost his job as a Web developer, the couple decided to pursue farming full-time. They expanded their egg sales to include area retailers and restaurants, and started raising a flock of sheep.

Last year, with help from friends who run the area’s largest vegetable CSA, the Andersons launched a meat CSA. More than 12,500 small and mid-sized farms nationwide market their products through CSAs, but meat and dairy CSAs or “buying clubs” represent a relatively new trend. Members of the 2silos CSA pay an annual fee that helps underwrite the farm’s operating costs, then in return receive six monthly shares of eggs and a variety of meat cuts (approximately 20 pounds per month).

The Andersons like this marketing arrangement because it offers them guaranteed sales and customer loyalty while giving consumers the opportunity to purchase fresh, often organic food at a competitive price. It also keeps food dollars in the community. The 2silos CSA was so successful in its first year—“We had so much interest, we had to expand just to meet our first winter’s demand,” Denise says—that the Andersons added a summer vegetable CSA for 2009.

A Smarter Way to Raise Animals

The 2silos CSA now offers chicken, eggs, beef, lamb, pork, and even goose and rabbit, but the Andersons don’t have the space to raise all these animals themselves. Instead, they have joined forces with four neighboring farms that supply the CSA with livestock. Though each farm raises different animals, they share a common commitment to sustainable farming practices. All of the animals are raised on carefully managed pastures, a system that produces more nutritious meat while minimizing the pollution problems that plague overcrowded CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations).

“Smart pasture systems” and other farms that reduce the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics common in CAFOs are even healthier for animals and people alike. Missouri hog farmer Russ Kremer knows this well; years ago, he nearly died from an antibiotic-resistant infection related to his small CAFO’s routine overuse of antibiotics. He responded by updating his operation to a modern, cost-saving model that houses hardy breeds of pigs in an airy, straw-filled barn with constant access to pasture—an environment that virtually eliminates the need for antibiotics.

UCS is working to expand government support for farmers like the Andersons and Russ Kremer who are moving U.S. agriculture away from the unhealthy practices of the past by investing in organic and smart pasture systems. Visit our website at www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture to learn more about these efforts, download a fact sheet on meat CSAs, or view a slide show about Russ Kremer and his farm.