community supported agriculture in wisconcin(2)

producers and consumers will built a firm relation with the basis of credit.

Community supported agriculture began in the United States

on two east coast farms in 1986. Since that time, community

supported farms have been organized throughout North America,

mainly in the Northeast, the Paci c coast, the Upper-Midwest,

and Canada.4 North America now has at least 1500 community

supported farms.5

The Number of CSAs in Wisconsin has Grown QuicklyThe Midwest has proven to be fertile ground for CSA farms and

communities. In Wisconsin, the rst CSA projects began near

Milwaukee and in western Wisconsin near the Twin Cities in

1988. In 1996, more than 65 Wisconsin community supported

farms grew food for an estimated 3,000 households.6 In 2007,

there are approximately 90 CSAs in Wisconsin.7

Wisconsin CSAs are listed in a number of locations including:

Local Harvest8

Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition9

Urban Ecology Center (Milwaukee)10

Farm Fresh Atlases for each region of Wisconsin11

For about 75% of Wisconsinites, drinking water is groundwater.

Only a small number of communities in Wisconsin, located along

Lakes Michigan, Superior or Winnebago, are supplied by surface

water.12 While a great many land use practices have the potential

to impact the quality of drinking water, agriculture is a large user

of both fertilizer and pesticides, and farming practices

play a large role in whether these chemicals seep

into the groundwater.

Approximately 13 million pounds of

pesticides are applied to major agricultural

crops in Wisconsin each year, including over

8.5 million pounds of herbicides, 315,000

pounds of insecticides, one million pounds

of fungicides, and 3 million pounds of other

chemicals.13 As a result, an estimated 37.7%

of private drinking water wells in Wisconsin

contained a detectable level of an herbicide or

herbicide metabolite, according to a recent study.14

The map at the left shows the geographical pattern

of herbicide contaminated wells.

In contrast, a national survey of CSAs in 2001

found that more than 96% of the 314 CSAs

responding to the survey followed some form of organic or

biodynamic production. Over 40% of the CSAs were certi ed Pecentage of Private Wells With Detectable Herbicides or Herbicide

Metabolites (2001)