Community supported agriculture has been growing in Vermont and elsewhere, and now the state’s two U.S. senators are hoping to give it a boost from Washington.
Sens. Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders on Tuesday introduced legislation that would set up a new competitive grant program under the U.S. Department of Agriculture to promote CSA farms, in which consumers buy direct from farmers, paying part of the cost of what they get at the beginning of the growing season.
Sanders and Leahy say Vermont has been a leader in the CSA movement, with more than 100 farms offering some type of CSA program and with the state having the highest per capita direct farm sales in the country.