Urban Farm DB
Research catalogue
Database research record2011·United States

Legitimating community supported agriculture through American pastoralist ideology

Melea Press, Eric J. Arnould

Journal of Consumer Culture

Urban Farm DB summary

This study examines how Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs gained legitimacy as a market form in the United States, using a socio-historical lens. It argues that American pastoralist ideology, linking historical agrarian ideals with modern CSAs, helped integrate them into the mainstream. The research suggests that the Internet further aided this legitimation by fostering personal commercial communications and de-massification, reinforcing egalitarian principles and community perceptions central to pastoralist ideology while masking cultural contradictions.