Article by Monika Onyszkiewicz
Where are we with our Local Solidarity-based Partnerships for Agroecology models and the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model in particular in Poland
More then 16 years ago, Urgenci (International network for LSPA’s) sent “emissaries” from France to Poland, then to the Czech Republic and Hungary, with a mission to promote the AMAP model among local food communities. I had the pleasure of organising a meeting for consumers and local farmers in Wrocław in February 2009. What we heard from the guests who attended – consumers of Polish origin and two farmers from the French AMAP – was exactly the form of access to food we were looking for. We wanted to be able to regularly buy fresh, safe and environmentally friendly food, without unnecessary intermediaries, on a human scale.
After all these years, what does our Polish version of CSA look like? This question is relevant because in December, we will have the opportunity to meet again with a large group of the CSA community in Villarceaux near Paris at an international CSA community symposium, where people (including farmers!) from Poland will also be present.
The last CSA community meeting took place in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 2018. The event was part of a project focused on CSA communities – CSAct! financed by the Erasmus+ programme. The main coordinator was URGENCI, while three of the other five partners were from Central Europe (Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary). At that time, it was decided in Thessaloniki to organise a separate meeting for food communities from Central Europe, as it is much easier to understand each other due to similar historical backgrounds and cultures. This, in turn, shapes our organisational culture, social attitudes, trust in public institutions and each other. Such meetings have already taken place twice, in 2021 and 2023. This year, I hope that the December Symposium in France will be another such opportunity. The CSA model requires a high level of trust, social competence and cooperation skills, which are not our strongest points. Nevertheless, I would like to draw attention to the solutions that have been introduced by Polish communities into the mainstream and to the conscious development of food policy, taking into account the LSPA model at various levels – local or national.
There is no official organisation in Poland that represents the interests of the CSA group and conducts advocacy and advisory activities. However, there is an informal coalition of people associated with three organisations that have joined forces to support the movement and spread awareness about it. These are the Ziarno Association, Foundation for Sustainable Development and the AgriNatura Foundation. It was among the people involved in these organisations that the direction of activities networking the current CSA farms was initiated. The official website where you can find information about CSA community in Poland is wspierajrolnictwo.pl, created thanks to funds from contributions from existing CSA groups in 2012-2014. The website is run on a voluntary basis by people involved in the above-mentioned organisations. Currently, there are several (11) farms in Poland offering access to food based on the CSA model. In total, the farms feed about 1,200 families, which is not a significant part of the population of about 38 million, but it gives hope for change.
What is noteworthy are two solutions specific to Poland. The first is a specific CSA organised for employees of the Environmental University of Life Sciences in Wrocław. In this model, the employer itself is the farmer – the University, as a research unit, has a farm where it grows a variety of edible plants. Until now, part of the harvest was sold occasionally, but on the initiative of two researchers, one of whom had experience in the traditional form of CSA and the other had extensive experience in planning crops for maximum season extension and crop diversity, they proposed to the University to launch a pilot project for employees in the form of CSA deliveries. The idea was to maintain deliveries for at least 30 weeks, and the contents of each share were to provide at least the recommended daily intake of fruit and vegetables for an adult. Those interested sign up for the entire season, pay a fee and collect their allocations from May to the end of November. The success and interest exceeded the initiators’ expectations. The third season is now in full swing, with more than twice as many people on the waiting list as are currently participating (an average of about 140 shares per season). What are the effects of introducing CSA in the workplace? Data collected from users is currently being analysed to examine how participation in this pilot model affects consumer attitudes and habits. There are plans to extend the cultivation to additional hectares and to supply products to the university canteen, which is used by both employees and students. This experiment is both a way of modelling beneficial behaviour and a very good example on which to educate future generations of educated farmers. Considering that there is a lack of sufficient knowledge among farmers about so called “market gardening” (where diversity reaches up to 70 species on a single farm!), this gives hope that future generations of graduates will be familiar with the specifics of CSA and will be open to different ways of growing food than before.
Another interesting example of introducing the CSA model into the mainstream disscussion is the submission of the professional qualification ‘CSA Advisor’ to the Ministry of Labour on the initiative of the ‘Ziarno’ Association in Grzybowo. The Ministry’s acceptance of this professional qualification has very practical benefits: the subject of CSA can be included in the curriculum of schools (vocational and university level) and also enables various types of specialists advising farmers to improve their qualifications. The professional qualification was approved a year ago, and two editions of the course for advisors have been organised by the initiator, the Ziarno Association, which runs the Ecological People’s University, educating and bringing together the organic farming community. Every year in Grzybowo, at the headquarters of the Ecological People’s University, a ‘Good Harvest’ meeting is organised for organic farmers and people interested in agroecology. This year’s meeting brought together a large group of people eager to expand their knowledge about the practical aspects of running or setting up an CSA group. It was very encouraging to see and hear so many people open to this demanding form of access to food.
I have high hopes for the CSA model – not only as a way to access food, but above all as a model of mutual human and interspecies relations.
An in-depth analysis of the situation in Poland, together with an outline of the background in the Visegrad countries, can be found in last year’s report: CSA_report_Polska_eng.docx.pdf or in a scientific paper exploring the current situation of CSA farms in Poland:
https://www.socioeco.org/bdf_fiche-document-9591_en.html
Other places where found:
https://doi.org/10.3390/su17072965
