After cultivating new thinking in the 1980s, a group of New Hampshire farmers initiated a highly productive, economically sustainable, and environmentally radiant farm on rocky, rolling hills flanking the Souhegan River.

The model they established has in subsequent years blossomed to become as many as 10,000 community farms (CSA) in cities, towns, villages and churches across the land.

Yet three of the seed ideas that were once at the core of CSA farms have been overlooked or bypassed. In brief, those seed ideas are: shared ownership and risk, free-will participation as members of the community, and intelligent partnership with nature rather than brute efforts at domination and control.

The CSA model and its many variations continue to emerge in communities, not just in the Americas, but also in Europe, Japan, China, Australia and many other places around the world. Community farms serve to anchor the high-tech, digitally infused culture that drives much of modern life. In that way they are making a big, positive difference.