Nearly a quarter of PCSA shareholders say the primary reason they return to the program each year is that it forces them to eat more varied produce and an overall higher quantity of produce than they otherwise would. (PCSA Returning Member Random Phone Survey January, 1998)

This becomes more important from a nutritional standpoint when you consider that produce was already an important part of many of these individuals’ diets. Most joined PCSA not to gain access to produce in general, but to pesticide-free produce.

If a CSA share can increase fruit and vegetable consumption among those who already consume moderate levels, it’s impact might theoretically be more dramatic on those who typically consume less produce. This theory can be supported with anecdotal evidence from the Smith family. (Name changed to protect shareholders’ privacy. Actual name and phone number can be provided for research purposes.)

In 1988, the Smiths were a professional couple with a high-school-aged son and another son away at college. They joined PCSA because Mrs. Smith believed that paying in advance for a set amount of produce each week would force the family to eat more produce. “You pick it up. It’s in your house and you end up eating it,” she reports. “We come back each year because the produce is good and we’re eating more vegetables,” she adds.

Not mentioned in the example above, is that Mr. Smith works as a horticultural researcher. As such, he has ample access to local, fresh produce. However, even this access was not enough to actually increase the amount of produce the Smiths consumed, at least to levels that Mrs. Smith felt were nutritionally adequate.

The Smiths are far from the only family whose diet has benefitted by participating in PCSA. Several shareholders have reported that the quality of their diets actually improves during the months of the PCSA season.

Additionally, many shareholders report that their PCSA experience renews their acquaintance with vegetables from their childhoods, often teaching them to enjoy vegetables they once despised—turnips, beets, squash, rhubarb, … In a January 1998 survey, over 10 percent of shareholders who reported not liking some of these vegetables as children are now requesting that they be included in higher amounts in the share. Many shareholders also report that they have developed preferences for vegetables that were new to them, including kohlrabi and Asian greens. Several continue to purchase these vegetables from the grocery store after the PCSA season ends.