Research & reports

Meiling Wu · Sustainability · China

A study of a Sharing Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm in China examined, through semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis, how external investment drives the conventionalization of alternative agriculture. The farm's low economic sustainability was the trigger that drew in external investment; investors then compelled the farm manager to relax adherence to organic agriculture's ecological values and principles and shift toward specialized, intensive farming to secure profitability, and a new business model was adopted that further entrenched this conventionalization.

Xiaoying Yan, Mei Yin, Renren Li · Atlantis Highlights in Computer Sciences/Atlantis highlights in computer sciences · China

High customer turnover is a significant challenge in China's Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) industry. This study utilized RFM models (Recency, Frequency, and Monetary) and algorithms to regularly rank and classify the consumption ability of CSA customers. This was achieved by analyzing their recent purchase time, number of times of consumption, and consumption data.

Ziyi Liu, Nicola Dempsey, Eckart Lange · ˜The œurban book series · China (Pearl River Delta)

This chapter investigates Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in the Pearl River Delta, China, aiming to understand its role in the local food system and in reducing food safety concerns. It notes a limited understanding of barriers to promoting and developing CSA, and little published evidence on public attitudes or their influence on CSA demand and development in the region. The study identifies current socio-economic and environmental catalysts and barriers for CSA farming.

Daren Shi-chi Leung · China Perspectives · China (Guangzhou)

The Chinese community-supported agriculture (CSA) movement advocates for peasant farming and food sovereignty, promoting "ethical" food often through intermediary certification. However, controversy exists among CSA activists who question the effectiveness of certification in improving consumer-producer relationships. This paper presents an alternative approach focusing on strengthening participatory culture within the consumer-producer nexus, based on an empirical study of Chengxianghui (CXH) in Guangzhou and outlining a "convivial agriculture" framework.

Zhenzhong Si, Theresa Schumilas, Weiping Chen, Tony Fuller, Steffanie Scott · Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l alimentation · Canada; China

A comparative study of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) models in Canada and China was conducted based on interviews and survey results. The study developed a framework to compare CSAs based on initiators’ motivations, economic characteristics, ecological practices, shareholder relations, and community building. It was found that CSAs in both Canada and China are struggling to maintain the movement’s original values and economic viability, moving away from the traditional ‘risk sharing’ approach to more flexible payment mechanisms. However, other original tenets of the CSA model, such as member engagement, are strengthening.

Hok Bun Ku, Yan Hairong · · China

China's food-security crisis, caused by unsustainable development, has diminished the country's farmland through large-scale land acquisitions, ecological restoration projects, agricultural structural adjustments, natural disasters, and pollution, among other factors. This chapter argues that local producers and consumers are not passively waiting for government policy changes but, organized by green social workers, are actively searching for alternatives to achieve self-sufficiency and food security through a new initiative called the "rural–urban alliance." Framed within the social economy perspective advocated by green social work as a way to rethink economic development and consider alternatives to capitalism, the rural–urban alliance and community-supported agriculture (CSA) are positioned as a potential new route for China's sustainable development that could change the pathway of economic development forms that cause inequality and undermine livelihoods. This is a proposed, forward-looking argument, however; the abstract does not report empirical evidence that CSA or the rural–urban alliance have actually mitigated the food-security crisis.