Community supported agriculture (CSA) is a American system where a community of people pool their funds together to buy a whole season’s worth of produce from a farmer (or farmers).

This is similar, but not the same as andelslandbruk (needs translation) in Norway.

The key difference is that in the Norwegian andelslandbruk, you are an individual owner of a share of the farm, and it is expected that you work the land, at least s little bit in return, and you collect the produce from the farm yourself.

Whereas with CSA, my understanding is that the produce is delivered to the ‘customer’ on a weekly basis.

Is there room for a solution like this in Norway? Would you be able to create a sustainable distribution network in an urban area like Oslo for instance?

A truck drives around to farms in the neighbouring areas to collect produce, and distribute it with bikes in the city centre? Like a fresh produce courier?

One would need a distribution central in the different neighborhoods in the city. This could potentially also be open to the community once a week, with information and simple cooking classes.

A community produce distribution.

See Food, agriculture, farming, community