Sliding Scale Report

You may remember from way back in January that the CSA has a sliding-scale pricing option. This allows people to elect to pay more than retail price in order to directly offset the cost of CSA vegetables for people who would otherwise be unable to access this healthy, well-grown food. More broadly, it is also a way for everyone involved with the CSA to engage with these ideas, whether or not they decided to pay more (and I do not keep track!). We're now in the third year of offering the sliding scale option, and, much to my surprise, not one person has ever inquired about what actually happened with the money paid extra. Thank you for your trust and all, but still I'd like to take a moment to tell you about it this year―as every year.

As I described the situation on the website: It's a reality that our country's food system maintains low prices through environmental degradation, worker exploitation, and government programs; that subsidy and regulation favor processed food designed to sell rather than to nourish; that access to fresh healthy food is difficult for those without the financial security and education to buy it; and that wealth is largely a product of the possibilities afforded by our parents' socioeconomic situation and our education―simply, of our access to opportunity.

On one level, the sliding scale is simply a way for someone to elect to price the CSA slightly differently depending on their present income. But, at a deeper level, the purpose of the sliding scale is to create a way to engage with historical disadvantage. While I didn't make a big deal on the website about linking the sliding scale idea to our history of racial inequality (since I know not everyone holds the same narrative on this topic), it is clear to me that in America generational access to opportunity and financial power is in large part based on race. This article in The Atlantic described how this familiar story played out for farming: from black land ownership, to white land ownership, to―in fact―corporate land ownership.

This year I joined forces with my neighbor Potomac Vegetable Farms, who had been inspired to start their own sliding scale model, to combine the driving and logistics work (one of the trickiest aspects, to be honest) and bring vegetables from both of our farms out to a community in southwest DC. Every Monday I set out 12 share's worth of vegetables to be picked up by PVF, and the next day it's driven into DC to the same apartment community we've been sending the sliding-scale vegetables to since the beginning. In fact, the person hired to do the driving is the person who knew that area and found the community in the first place. An organizer who lives there receives the vegetables and they're distributed to the folks who live in the building―elderly people first―and some weeks they say as many as 75 families will see at least a few of the CSA vegetables. All look forward to the weekly vegetables and appreciate the opportunity to cook with this food and be a part of the CSA deliveries.

When I began the sliding scale three years ago, I felt it was one of my bigger risks in my CSA design, forcing everyone to at least see and click through the information about it. But it has proven itself to be overwhelmingly successful. Thanks to everyone who engaged--whatever your personal decisions or thoughts on the matter--and thanks for truly being Community Supported Agriculture members.