A local contract
..or direct sales scheme...what counts is that rather than the commercial exchange, priority is given to recreating the links between the city and its rural surroundings. Receiving healthy, local food at a reasonable price, while knowing the producer is possible, even in town!
Here are different "direct sales" examples:
-purchasing your produce directly at the farm
-going to a farmer's market
-shops of farmer's cooperatives
-producer's and consumer's cooperatives
-veggie basket depots
-CSAs- Community Supported Agriculture groups ("Teikei" in Japan, CSA is the USA and ASC in Quebeck, AMAP in France and GASAP or GAC in Belgium)
What is a local contract ?
In certain agricultural support groups, such as the AMAP, GASAP or CSAs a contract is set up between the producer/farmer and every household that participates in the scheme. In this way, every household agrees to buy a part of the production for the following season. For example, for a market gardener with a local contract, most of his production will be destined for partner-households in form of weekly/monthly veggie baskets. In this way, the producers can be sure to sell their produce before the season even starts. In case of climatic variations and loss of yield, the households agreed to act in solidarity with the producer and to receive fewer vegetables than was planned (in general, however, losses in one kind of vegetables are compensated by other, more productive types).It is therefore a kind of contractual relationship between the consumer and producer, a practice, which is stands out from the conventional market economy. For further explanations, see:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community-supported_agriculture
