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In 1994, Future Harvest-CASA, was founded to promote profitable, environmentally sound and socially acceptable food and farming systems that work to sustain communities. We are a network of farmers, agricultural professionals, landowners, consumers and local advocates who live and work in the Chesapeake region: Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia and Delaware.

From the beginning, our membership has been comprised of producers, consumers, government entities and other stakeholders, with our primary focus for programs and outreach on small and midsize farms and producers who are interested in sustainability and profitability. While we stay true to this original mission, we feel it is time to update our goals and action plans, according to changing times.

There is increased interest in our mission, such that our membership has now expanded to include people from different sectors of the food system: those who participate in the local food economy, those helping to preserve farmland and open space, those who advocate for sustainable food and agriculture and those whose concerns range from educating consumers about where our food comes from to improving school lunches to the importance of school gardens.

We have accomplished a lot and have continued to spread the word, but the staff and Board of Directors of Future Harvest-CASA, along with some of our members, feel that the time is right to chart a new course for our network organization.

As a first step of that process, we held a series of facilitated listening sessions so that members and potential members could help us to develop and create a new strategy and direction for the next five years. The series were held in January and February.

In order to hear what our current and prospective members are thinking about, here are some questions we considered: Where are we now? Where should we go? What do we need as support to get us to where we want to go? And, how can we improve our public image? How have we been doing to further our core mission: to promote profitable, environmentally sound and socially acceptable food and farming systems that work to sustain communities? And, what more do we need to do? How do we get the word out to others who may be interested in our mission?

Again, we want to continue hear from our members and other stakeholders. Please take our ongoing 12 question, 5 minute online survey. And please feel free to call with questions or with your direct feedback at 410-549-7878, or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .