We think a lot about our pricing. Our natural inclination is usually on the side of worrying we are charging too much and wanting to be generous. One of our goals is to provide ethical food in an affordable manner. Ultimately though, we are also hoping to have a model that provides workers (like ourselves) with something approaching a living wage. What follows is our (rather soapbox-y) current pricing philosophy...
The simplest and most common way to determine price is to look at the market price of a similar product. We do try to get at least in the ballpark of this with our pricing. In every box we will shoot for quantities of each item that equate to about $3.5-4 in market value (compared to organic prices) and will try to give people at least 8 items per box. (8 x 3.5 = $28 market value per box x 12 = $336).
In the free-market capitalist's fictional utopia, all relevant values would be captured in the market price. Back in the messy here and now, however, a lot of costs of production are externalized in most operations. It is "good business" to externalize (not include in the price of your good) or ignore costs of production (like pollution, human health, habitat destruction, etc.). This is part of the "fiduciary responsibility" a company has to maximize the profits for shareholders. To us, however, it is important to try to understand all of the effects of our actions and do what we can to minimize negative effects when possible. If this makes for bad business, we don't want to be good.
When determining for oneself what they believe a "fair price" is for both provider and consumer, I'd argue that a number of variables should be considered. Depending on how one weighs each of these variables, our CSA could be a good value and worthwhile or not. For instance, if you value the lowest monetary cost per calorie above all else, or seek to live in a future where the least amount of human effort is exerted for food production and consumption, our CSA is likely not going to provide you great value. Values that we give some weight to and think are important are below. We hope if you also find some number of these to be important, our CSA will be able to provide good value.
local foodshed resilience
supporting the local economy and members of one's community
reducing "food miles" (i.e. how long food travels from field to consumer)
avoiding the effects on the environment of the manufacturing and use of -"cides" and synthetic fertilizers
avoiding the personal known and unknown effects of eating food that uses "-cides"
growing food that is carbon-negative
using production methods that reduce dependence on non-renewable energy
avoiding production methods that rely heavily on plastic
having jobs/labor that is enjoyable
increasing the number of humans who interact with and are more directly connected to nature and/or food production
providing people with a living wage
reducing dependence on foreign energy sources and the geopolitical tangles and wars that result
growing/consuming nutritionally dense food
growing/consuming flavorful food
growing/consuming fresh food
growing/consuming unique or heirloom varieties of vegetables
harvesting vegetables when they are ripe and avoiding the need for ripening or post-harvest chemical treatments
increasing unquantifiable feelings of community that go along with the interdependency of consumer and producer knowing each other
building trust between grower/consumer and allowing the consumer to talk to, see, and verify growing practices
respecting wildlife and other living creatures that share our growing areas
increasing and protecting biodiversity and the eco-system resiliency that comes along with that
making most "use" of each atom on its journey from rock to sea to air
We certainly have a long way to go before we feel we have done all we can in terms of these values and there are certainly other farms who do better than us in meeting some of them. Yet, by supporting us, you are supporting us in our mission to get better and more fully realize these values. As said above, we really appreciate everyone who has chosen to take a chance on these still fairly new growers in the past and those who choose to do in the future!
Another completely different approach to pricing is to simply look at "what price would we have to charge for it to be worth it to us?" One of our hopes is to get better at tracking our time so we match our limited time to what provides most value to others and understand where we can gain efficiencies. If I had to guess at how much time we've spent in years past, calculating the time that goes into newsletter, website, crop planning, seed buying, bed prep, planting, weeding, irrigation, singing gentle words of encouragement to plants, harvesting, processing, infrastructure, and delivery* my estimate would be around 750 hours total between the two of us per year. Right now the only way we sell product is through the CSA. Each year so far we've spent close to or more than that in various infrastructure improvements. If we just consider our running costs, however, and not these infrastructure costs, our hourly rate would still probably hover around a few dollars an hour. Now, to reiterate, we are ecstatic with the support we've received and it has been "worth it" for us since we are still learning and building skills and knowledge. Eventually we do hope to get to a point where most of our infrastructure is in place and largely paid for, we've gained efficiencies of scale as we grow, and developed systems that make our operation more "lean" to save time. None of this is to rouse pity, but to re-assure you, we aren't and never will be pricing and selling vegetables such that the two of us are in a position to sit on our rockers with cigars counting our cheese. The only excess of cheese is in us earnestly saying that this is our passion and gives us purpose and that's priceless :).
*This doesn't count professional development time, which is probably another 500+ hours of podcast, books, conferences, webinars, and online discovery.