The Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) phenomenon began in Japan in the 1970's when a group of housewives became fed up with what was available in grocery stores from large-scale commercial farmers. They also noticed that their local, small-scale, farmers were going out of business because they couldn't compete with the large-scale, high-efficiency, whatever's-convenient-and-cost-effective approach of commercial agriculture. These women decided to approach a local farmer directly and say: "We will pay you to grow our food."
