Govt and Growers are doing their jobs, local shopkeepers are also justified to some extent. So the question to the consumer is should we keep reading or watching news paper about price hike of daily needs produce and continue to shell off relatively larger portion of our hard earn money on fruits and vegetables.
If you look at the past how our villagers used to live together to control over cost, similar techniques can be used in the modern days to change the mindset from expense, to save, to earn concept.
So start thinking on how can we earn by buying vegetables. Its not marketing gimmic "earn points" etc but its real earning in money and health perspective.
People when they are sick some time say " Health is Wealth". Isn't it true even when we are not sick.We all endorse this.
There are two important points that has come clearly. We need to be eat healthy fruits and vegetables and secondly we should be thinking in terms of earning when we buy vegetables.
Food safety is one the the major concern consumers are facing. If one visit the local mandi to check how their vegetables are put on mud before its sold to reseller. Veggies handling and transportation adds to further infection. Today's families are more aware about Organic produces (literally meaning zero pesticide and insecticide).
Vegetables safety : Organically grown products are more healthier than products with heavy usage of pesticide and insecticide.
Vegetables price: Vegetables should be priced at the mutual agreed price between grower and consumer.
Service: Vegetables should be delivered to consumer's doorstep or self pick up by the consumer.
In order to eat healthy and earn we may go back in history and look for forming a community of consumers who will
Community-supported agriculture (in Canada Community Shared Agriculture) (CSA) is a socio-economic model of agriculture and food distribution. A CSA consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farming operation where the growers and consumers share the risks and benefits of food production. CSAs usually consist of a system of weekly delivery or pick-up of vegetables and fruit, in a vegetable box scheme, and sometimes includes dairy products and meat.
Benefits of Community supported agriculture:
CSA System
CSAs generally focus on the production of high quality foods for a local community, often using organic or biodynamic farming methods, and a shared risk membership–marketing structure. This kind of farming operates with a much greater degree of involvement of consumers and other stakeholders than usual — resulting in a stronger consumer-producer relationship. The core design includes developing a cohesive consumer group that is willing to fund a whole season’s budget in order to get quality foods. The system has many variations on how the farm budget is supported by the consumers and how the producers then deliver the foods. CSA theory purports that the more a farm embraces whole-farm, whole-budget support, the more it can focus on quality and reduce the risk of food waste or financial loss.
Structure
CSA focuses on having
- a transparent, whole season budget for producing a specified wide array of products for a set number of weeks a year;
- a common-pricing system where producers and consumers discuss and democratically agree to pricing based on the acceptance of the budget;
- a ‘shared risk and reward’ agreement, i.e. that the consumers receive what the farmers grow even with the vagaries of seasonal growing.
Distribution and marketing methods
A distinctive feature of CSAs is the method of distribution. Vegetables shares are provided every week with pick-up or deliveries occuring on a designated day and time.
CSAs are different from buying clubs and home delivery services where the consumer buys a specific product at a predetermined price. CSA members purchase only what the farm is able to successfully grow and harvest sharing some of the growing risk with the farmer. If the strawberry crop is not successful, for example, the CSA member will share the burden of the crop failure by receiving fewer, or lower quality, strawberries for the season. CSA members are often more actively involved in the growing and distribution process through shared newsletters and recipes, farm visits, farm work-days, advance purchases of shares and picking up their shares of produce.
In such cases the farmer may supplement each box with produce brought in from neighboring farms for a wider variety. Thus there is a distinction between the farmers selling pre-paid shares in the upcoming season's harvest or a weekly subscription that represents that week's harvest. In all cases participants purchase a portion of the farm's harvest either by the season or by the week in return for what the farm is able to successfully grow and harvest.
An advantage of the close consumer-producer relationship is increased freshness of the produce because it does not have to be shipped long distances. The close proximity of the farm to the members also helps the environment by reducing pollution caused by transporting the produce. CSAs often include recipes and farm news in each box in which tours of the farm and work days are announced. Over a period of time consumers get to know who is producing their food and what production methods are used.
To know how can join the community supported farming.Please call Shilu ,9910035164 or email mandi.fresh@gmail.com
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