Autonomous Transportation and CSA's

How would our Autonomous Transportation System affect Community Supported Agriculture, CSA’s? One impact is faster, cheaper, and easier access to your food from the CSA.

If you want more information on CSA’s, Small Farm Rising is an excellent video showcasing some of the Adirondack area small farms and CSA’s. Hopefully you can see it on your local PBS station, or buy it from Mountain Lake PBS.

We just picked up our second package of delicious organic vegetables from our CSA, Fledging Crow.

How big is a CSA? Essex Farm farms 600 acres and feeds 222 people with all their needs. Many of the CSA’s at Saranac Lake Farmers Market are much smaller, and focus on specific products, such as honey or cheese or baked goods. 

Most of the farmers at the market also sell retail, whether or not they have a CSA. If there isn’t enough produce to go beyond the CSA members, the farmer sets it aside for the members, another membership advantage.

I glossed over the question of who selects and packages our food from the CSA. Today I go and choose what I want – typically there are choices to make, such as spinach vs. spring mix or carrots vs. turnips. Then I take what I have selected and load it into my box and take it home. Some CSA’s prepackage what I can pick up, which reduces the effort at the pickup site, but perhaps I can swap if I don’t want a particular food in my package.

So what happens if I can’t make it to the pickup site on a particular day? Our CSA has 5 different sites on different days, so I can go to another site if I choose. Or I can have a friend pick up my share – we are already doing that for our neighbors while they are away on vacation in Alaska.

One alternative for the choice function is easy, we do it every day for all sorts of things: use the Internet and an app on my smart-device. The app shows my options and records my selections. Knowing what customers choose, helps the farmer decide what to harvest, and how much of each food to bring, and what to package. In the longer term this also helps the farmer decide what to plant.

What if, as part of my choices, I specify where I want the food package delivered? Our Autonomous Transportation System can rapidly and inexpensively deliver my food, certainly cheaper than driving my car. Remember I always have the option of going to one of the pickup sites to meet farmers and other friends, so the Autonomous Transportation System is not reducing my choices, I can get to the pickup site faster and easier, in addition to the option of having it delivered.