I've met the Animal Welfare Approved folks at many of the conferences I travel to and they seem like a great organization offering a standard and certification program to farmers. They sent me the information below so you can familiarize yourself with their work:

Are you concerned about the welfare of animals that become part of the food chain? Animal Welfare Approved is the only third-party welfare certification that actually guarantees animals were raised outdoors. This USDA recognized certification and food label is dedicated to family farmers practicing high-welfare husbandry, outdoors on pasture or range. Animal Welfare Approved maintains a fee-free program, which has two important outcomes: one, there is no incentive to pass noncompliant farms; and two, the certification is available to any farm meeting AWA’s rigorous standards, regardless of size or scale.

Animal Welfare Approved’s standards are the most rigorous and progressive animal care requirements in the nation, as recognized by the World Society for the Protection of Animals for two years running. These standards have been developed in collaboration with scientists, veterinarians, researchers and farmers and incorporate best practice and recent research. Annual audits by experts in the field cover birth to slaughter. Species include beef cattle and calves, dairy cattle and calves, pigs, poultry (chicken, turkey and duck), sheep, dairy sheep, goat, dairy goats and bison and calves. The basic premise of all the standards is that animals must be able to behave naturally and be in a state of physical and psychological well-being.

Given only to family farms, the Animal Welfare Approved label verifies that participating farms are putting each individual animal’s comfort and well-being first. The program is based on the simple understanding that our own best interests are intrinsically linked to animals and the environment. Farmers benefit from having a third-party affirmation of their practices and consumers benefit by knowing that the label means what it says. The many health benefits of meat, dairy and eggs from animals raised outdoors are well-documented. As more and more people seek out these products - for ethical, health, and environmental reasons, Animal Welfare Approved is emerging as the most dependable guarantee that an animal was raised humanely outdoors.

Additionally, Animal Welfare Approved offers a level of farmer support that sets it apart from other certifications. Grant opportunities, technical and marketing assistance and networking are offered to all member farmers at no cost. AWA also actively works to develop relationships with retailers, restaurants and cooperatives in an effort to expand the availability of high-welfare products in the marketplace. This comprehensive support helps farmers to stay abreast of the latest techniques in high-welfare farming, and also to thrive as businesses and to share these techniques with other farms. AWA’s philosophy is to be supportive and encouraging, revitalizing a culture of independent family farms in which a humane ethic can be passed on to future generations.

For more information, visit www.AnimalWelfareApproved.org.

We have three premium templates in varying stages of development right now. They will be coming to your control panel in the next few weeks. We hope to bring out about 10 new templates this year.

These templates are always customizable to your own farm's unique looks and it is a very cost-effective way to get a completely professional look going for your farm quickly. We invest heavily in these templates, so we hope you love them!

One nice thing about using these templates: if you get bored of looking at the same design after a few years, you can switch your template with one click and all of your content, photos, and etc will transfer over and you have a completely new site!

Here is one really nice template that is in the works:

This is not finished yet and we are still polishing things up. For example, we need work on tying the graphics together. The farm that has apples (the header image) is unlikely to grow wheat (in the footer), so we are working on that aspect of this template still!

The Pittsburgh Tribune Review printed an article about what we are doing over here at Small Farm Central.

Check it out. I think it is an interesting article and covers the subject pretty well. Thanks to Penns Corner Farm Alliance and West Liberty Farm for talking to the reporter!

We have implemented a new feature into the Member Assembler in recent weeks -- we call it "status emails". This is an email your customers can request at any time to get details about their membership from pick-up locations, contacts in the membership, member types, balance, and payments.

This is an example of what the status emails look like in your customer's inbox.

This type of email will help your members keep tabs on their membership throughout the season without you having to touch the mouse. This will be especially useful for your members to get information about their pick-up location and payment balance.

This is just another way we are constantly working to improve all of our services, so keep the feedback coming!

Create a link to the "status email" request page by logging to your control panel and navigating to:
Member Assembler / Members / Status Emails

If you have not signed up for a Member Assembler account yet, go to the Member Assembler section of the site to sign up. It is completely free until you go beyond 25 members, so you have plenty of chances to try the service to make sure it will work for your farm before you commit.

So you've created a Member Assembler account (free for your first 25 member sign-ups) and you are working through getting your sign-up form created. Now you get to end of the process, and you are thinking about how customers reserve their space in your CSA. You have the option to accept credit cards, or not.

Just because you can accept payment does not mean you should.

The main thing -- it's going to cost you to accept payments online. With the Member Assembler, you can accept payments with Google Checkout or Paypal. Each charges 2.5%+ of your sale. Click the links below for more detail on the fee schedule of each:
Paypal Fee Schedule
Google Checkout Fee Schedule

So, to process a $500 CSA share with Paypal, it is going to cost you $14.80. That will add up quickly in a 100 or 500 member CSA.

It is convenient because the payment is added to the Member Assembler, the member's balance is automatically adjusted, and the money flows into your bank account without a single mouse click.

The alternative here is our "invoice-only" option which means that no money is transacted online and you will need to accept a check later for share payment. A confirmation is simply sent to the farmer and the member after they click "Check out".

From having worked with many farmers that use this "invoice-only" option, it seems that almost all members make good on their sign-up pledge when using the invoice-only option.

I am not discouraging the use of payment processors for your CSA shares because it certainly is convenient and you are assured that the money will come in after a membership purchase has been made. You will certainly need to weigh the convenience factor of less paperwork for you and the customer versus the cost of taking payment online.

The slap chop guy.

Many of our farmers give their customers the choice to process the payment online for customer's convenience or use "invoice-only".

A good balance between convenience and cost is to require a small down-payment of perhaps $50 at the time the member signs up for your CSA and then take the rest of the membership payment by check later.

Credit card payments are required for online sales that are split-second decisions like buying the Slap Chop, but your CSA customers have made a conscious decision to join your CSA, so you shouldn't feel like using a payment processor is a requirement for your Member Assembler.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this issue, so please post in comments.