CSA Marcellos Farm in Sweden
What do people do when they can not find proper organic food in the stores? They start a Community Supported Agriculture!
By Juliette Snijders, Bondens Skyltfönster, September 2014.
At the moment, CSA Marcellos Farm feeds 20 familys with an unlimited amount of vegetables. The families pay their pledge every month and are free to fetch their share at the farm whenever they like.
The principle of “unlimited” shares is an interesting way of working, we all become more aware of our needs and responsibilities towards each other. The value of food is re-defined.
It all started a couple of years ago when the farmers Inge Schwagermann and Marcel van sitteren sold their farm in Holland and left for Sweden. Why would a dutch farmer sell its farm and move to Sweden you wonder?
Well, in the Netherlands, it is difficult to have cows at the farm due to legislation. Inge and Marcelo wanted to farm biodynamic and the heart of biodynamic farming is actually a closed circuit with cows that feed the soil and the soil that feeds the cows. Inge and Marcel sold their Dutch farm and bought a farm in Ugerupsdal, just 14 km outside of Kristianstad in Sweden.
After a couple of years getting the new farm going they met Juliette Snijders, also from Holland. Juliette was working with urban farming in the city park in Kristianstad and was starting a project with the goal to bring organic food and organic growing closer to the people. The project is called Bondens Skyltfönster and funded by the European Union.
Juliette and Inge shared the same visions like the importance to learn people about organic growing, the fact that money is not the most important thing in life, land can not be owned….
Together they decided to start a CSA and invited Lincoln Geiger from Temple Wilton Community Farms to Sweden. Lincoln is originally from Sweden but moved to USA in the eighties and started the CSA Temple Wilton Community Farms. Lincolns visit worked as a great inspiration for all those who participated in the workshop and in June 2014 the CSA Marcellos Farm was started.
There is a great possibility for growth at CSA Marcellos, we can take approximately 300 members and then the farm would be 100% CSA which is our future goal. We already have member initiatives, families are building a hen house together.
5 years after moving to Sweden, 200 hectares farming land and 30 cows later, they are the province of Skånes’ only biodynamic farm and Sweden’s largest Community Supported Agriculture.
DATA
|
Start CSA |
2014 |
|
Members today |
20 families |
|
Max amount members |
300 families |
|
Farm size |
200 hk |
|
Animals |
30 cows |
|
Farming |
Varied vegetables, meat |
|
Future plans |
Dairy, farm café, farm boutique, chickens |
Facebook.com/marcellosfarm
Facebook.cpom/bondensskyltfonster
