Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
410 results(7 / 17)
Co-Creating Value in Sustainable and Alternative Food Networks: The Case of Community Supported Agriculture in New Zealand
2020Mariarosaria Savarese, Kerry Chamberlain, Guendalina Graffigna · Sustainability · New Zealand
This qualitative study explored how Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms in New Zealand create value for sustainability practices from both farmer and consumer perspectives. The research, conducted using focused ethnography, found that CSA is a complex concept involving active consumer participation in economic, social, and environmental values. These interconnected values foster an ecosystem where sustainable food practices are promoted through a "learning by doing" process.
CSA & TeikeiCommunityEconomicsClimate changeFood sovereignty & justiceWhat Makes a CSA a CSA?
2020Zhenzhong 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.
Economic viabilityCSA & TeikeiEconomicsCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceMore Than Food: The Social Benefits of Localized Urban Food Systems
2020Lucy Diekmann, Leslie Gray, Chan L. Thai · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · United States (California)
This study measured the social, educational, civic, and nutritional impacts of four types of urban food system activities: home gardens, community gardens, farmers' markets, and CSAs, through a survey of 424 gardeners and 450 direct market shoppers in California's San Francisco Bay Area. While nutritional impacts were consistently high, significant differences were observed in social interaction and civic engagement between activity types. Gardens generally fostered greater learning, connection, and civic participation than direct marketing.
CommunityHealthFood educationCSA & Teikei‘Workable utopias’ for social change through inclusion and empowerment? Community supported agriculture (CSA) in Wales as social innovation
2020Tezcan Mert-Cakal, Mara Miele · Agriculture and Human Values · United Kingdom (Wales)
This article examines Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) projects in Wales as social innovation, exploring their emergence, innovative role, and transformative potential. Based on qualitative data from four different CSA case studies in Wales, the research showed that Welsh CSA cases play distinctive roles in the social economy, satisfying needs for ecologically sound and ethically produced food and empowering individuals at a micro level. However, the paper argues that for CSA initiatives to become 'workable utopias', they need to overcome barriers preventing replication, participation in macro-level policies, and scaling up, particularly concerning economic sustainability and resilience on a small scale.
Economic viabilityCSA & TeikeiFood sovereignty & justiceCommunityEconomicsTransformative communities in Germany
2020Irene Antoni-Komar, Christine Lenz · · Germany
This chapter discusses community building in sustainable food initiatives in Germany. Empirical data was collected through semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and action research with 27 practitioners from local food enterprises and initiatives, while quantitative data was gathered from surveys of members and customers. Findings indicate how participation in transformative enterprises is based on new forms of creative doing and collaboration, along with associated barriers and opportunities.
CommunityCSA & TeikeiFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsCSA Partnerships for Health: outcome evaluation results from a subsidized community-supported agriculture program to connect safety-net clinic patients with farms to improve dietary behaviors, food security, and overall health.
2020Betty T Izumi, Allea Martin, Teresa Garvin, Cesar Higgins Tejera, Sylvia Ness, Katy Pranian, Lauren Lubowicki · PubMed · Global
This study evaluated the preliminary effectiveness of "CSA Partnerships for Health," a 23-week grant-subsidized Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, in improving dietary behaviors, self-efficacy to eat vegetables, food security, and overall health among 48 safety-net clinic patients. This single-group pretest-posttest study utilized interviewer-administered surveys. Statistically significant differences between post-intervention and pre-intervention values were observed for several outcomes, including vegetable intake, orange vegetable intake, eating habits, food security, ability to afford healthy meals, and general health status.
CSA & TeikeiHealthWelfareFood sovereignty & justiceCommunity Supported Agriculture - Innovative Nischenstrategie für landwirtschaftliche Betriebe?
2020Marie Diekmann · Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung · Germany
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is an innovative form of direct cooperation where farmers and consumers share costs, products, responsibilities, and risks. A research project conducted in Germany from 2015 to 2018 aimed to contribute to the limited knowledge on CSA as an alternative niche strategy for agricultural businesses. This paper presents the central results of that project.
CSA & TeikeiEconomicsCommunityNourishing self-planned socioecological transformations
2020Silvio Cristiano, Marco Auriemma, P Cacciari, Manola Cervesato, Domenico Maffeo, Paola Malgaretto, Francesco Nordio · · Italy
This case study describes an ongoing community-supported agriculture (CSA) project in the urban-rural sprawl between Venice and Treviso, Italy. Farmers and consumers co-design and co-manage food provisioning and crop planning, sharing risks, avoiding food waste, and addressing financial barriers. The project aims to meet community food requirements while addressing economic, environmental, and social aspects, presenting feasible paths for sustainable transition.
CSA & TeikeiCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceOrganic cycleAnalyzing values-based modes of production and consumption: Community-supported agriculture in the Austrian Third Food Regime
2020Christina Plank, Robert Häfner, Rike Stotten · Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie · Austria
This paper analyzes Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in Austria, examining its values-based production and consumption within the "third food regime" using an interdisciplinary framework. The study found that CSA is currently a niche in Austria, where solidarity, community attachment, and respect for nature are central ideals for members. However, CSA initiatives face institutional, social, and material challenges in daily practices that require attention for their long-term viability.
CSA & TeikeiEconomicsCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceDirect producer‚Ä"consumer transactions: Community Supported Agriculture and its offshoots
2020Ted White · Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · United States
Non-market sales, barter, trade, donations, and other creative transactions have been integral to Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) since its inception, promoting creativity and new economic thinking due to its advance payment system for unknown harvests. Based on qualitative field research, primarily in the Northeastern United States, this chapter examines the innovative transactions that have enabled CSA and other Community Supported Enterprises (CSEs) to grow. While acknowledging that the 'Community Supported' model has not solved the challenge of providing adequate incomes for producers or attracting diverse participants, the chapter presents evidence of CSA as a vibrant system connecting producers and consumers through creative transactions.
Economic viabilityCSA & TeikeiEconomicsCommunityWorking Co-operatively for Sustainable and Just Food System Transformation
2020Poppy Nicol, Alice Taherzadeh · Sustainability · United Kingdom (Wales)
This article explores the potential of cooperative working methods to scale out sustainable and just food systems in Wales. Based on interviews with stakeholders in Wales and international case studies, it identifies opportunities and challenges. Findings suggest that cooperative and community-based approaches, including CSA and food hubs, have the potential for sustainable food production and distribution, emphasizing the importance of capacity building and community participation.
CSA & TeikeiCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsHealth Center–Based Community-Supported Agriculture: An RCT
2019Seth A. Berkowitz, Jessica O’Neill, Edward Sayer, Naysha N. Shahid, Maegan Petrie, Sophie Schouboe, Megan Saraceno, Rochelle Bellin · American Journal of Preventive Medicine · United States (Massachusetts)
This randomized controlled trial (RCT) tested whether a subsidized community-supported agriculture (CSA) intervention could improve diet quality for socioeconomically vulnerable individuals. Conducted from May 2017 to December 2018, 128 participants from a community health center in central Massachusetts were randomized to receive either subsidized CSA membership or healthy eating information (control group). The intervention group showed a clinically meaningful increase of 4.3 points in the Healthy Eating Index total score (p=0.03) and lower food insecurity (RR=0.68) compared to the control group.
CSA & TeikeiHealthWelfareSpatial Considerations for Implementing Two Direct-to-Consumer Food Models in Two States
2019Marilyn Sitaker, Jared T. McGuirt, Weiwei Wang, Jane Kolodinsky, Rebecca A. Seguin‐Fowler · Sustainability · United States
This study compared sociodemographic and geospatial contexts with farmers' experiences for two direct-to-consumer (DTC) models: a cost-offset CSA for low-income families and food boxes distributed via rural convenience stores, across two U.S. states (Vermont and Washington). Addresses of thirteen farms and DTC pickup sites were geocoded, and road network distances to supermarkets, farmers' markets, and farms were calculated. Most pickup areas were heavily car-dependent with limited public transportation. Despite modest profitability, both models were considered worth pursuing as they expanded farmers' customer base.
CSA & TeikeiEconomicsWelfareRészvétel a közösség által támogatott mezőgazdaságban: a társas támogatás szerepe
2019Ilona Liliána Birtalan, Bernadett Kis, József Rácz, György Bárdos · Egészségfejlesztés · Global
This qualitative study explored the role of social support in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) participation by conducting 35 semi-structured interviews with CSA members. The thematic analysis revealed three types of social support patterns within members' partner/marital relationships. The findings suggest that CSA membership can redefine individual/family consumption patterns, and the characteristics of social support influence the maintenance and duration of membership.
CSA & TeikeiCommunityHealthA Randomized Trial to Encourage Healthy Eating Through Workplace Delivery of Fresh Food
2019Rachel Feuerstein-Simon, Roxanne Dupuis, Ryan Schumacher, Carolyn C. Cannuscio · American Journal of Health Promotion · United States
This randomized trial (n=60) at a large urban worksite investigated a subsidized workplace Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program with cooking education to increase home-cooked meals. Intervention participants received 8 biweekly fresh food deliveries. Results showed increased home-cooked meals, 3.8 times higher odds of twice-daily fruit consumption, and 6.2 times higher odds of twice-daily vegetable consumption compared to controls. Intervention participants also experienced an 89% reduction in food insecurity.
CSA & TeikeiHealthFood educationSubsistence Solidarity and the Extension of Trust: Moral Economies of Organic Farming in Northern China
2019Anders Sybrandt Hansen · Journal of Current Chinese Affairs · China
This article focuses on organic farming, which has grown in response to unsafe food on the Chinese market, based on ethnographic fieldwork at one such farm in northern China. While the farm's Community Supported Agriculture model relies on establishing personal trust with member households, the entire organic farming project is shown to be undergirded by strong expressions of solidarity with conventional farmers. The article proposes an extended concept of moral economies to capture the coexistence of differential care alongside horizontal solidarities within contemporary China's moral landscape.
CSA & TeikeiCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceOrganic cycleNet Yield Efficiency: Comparing Salad and Vegetable Waste between Community Supported Agriculture and Supermarkets in the UK
2019N. R. Baker, Simon Popay, James Bennett, Moya Kneafsey · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United Kingdom
This paper introduced "net yield efficiency" (NYE) to compare food system performance by accounting for yields, loss, and waste. A UK case study compared fresh vegetable and salad waste between a community supported agriculture (CSA) scheme and the supermarket system. The study found that the CSA system wasted only 6.71% by weight across all stages, dramatically outperforming the supermarket system which wasted 40.7–47.7%. These findings highlight significant differences between the systems and suggest NYE offers a more accurate measure of food system performance.
CSA & TeikeiFood lossEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceCatalyzing change in local food system governance in Calgary, Alberta
2019Mary Beckie, Elizabeth M. Bacon · · Canada (Calgary)
This study examines YYC Growers and Distributors, a producer cooperative in Calgary, Alberta, established in 2014 with 20 urban and rural farmers. It analyzes the cooperative's internal democratic self-governance model and its role in evolving local food governance at municipal and provincial levels. The study concludes that YYC catalyzes change in local food governance through its relationships with various stakeholders.
CSA & TeikeiPolicyCommunityUrban–rural linkageAgriculture Supported Communities: Connecting Low-income Communities with Small-scale Vegetable and Fruit Producing Farms (P04-128-19)
2019Renate M. Winkels, Susan Veldheer, Andrew Smith · Current Developments in Nutrition · United States (Pennsylvania)
Rodale Institute's Agriculture Supported Communities (ASC) program aimed to connect small-scale fruit and vegetable farms with low-income communities in Pennsylvania. Surveys were distributed among ASC shareholders in 2016 and 2017 to collect socio-economic data and program satisfaction, and SNAP usage was also evaluated. With 150 shareholders in 2016 and 151 in 2017, 59% of shareholders lived in low-income areas in 2016 and 50% in 2017; however, the program also reached a population at the other end of the economic spectrum, posing challenges for farmers regarding production and distribution.
WelfareCommunityCSA & TeikeiFood sovereignty & justiceLocal Foods Sustain Your Community
2019Catherine Wong, Kathryn Geoffrion Scannell · University of New Hampshire Scholars Repository (University of New Hampshire at Manchester) · United States
This article suggests that establishing a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) or farm share pickup at libraries supports the local foods movement, reduces food travel distance, promotes healthy eating, and fosters community engagement. Additional benefits include donating fresh produce to food pantries. A CSA involves a relationship where members provide labor or monetary support in exchange for a share of farm produce.
CSA & TeikeiFood miles & supply chainCommunityWelfareEden Gardens Farm: A Series of Lessons on Aquaponics
2019Ashley Pritchard · Maryland Shared Open Access Repository (USMAI Consortium) · United States
Eden Gardens Farm, a 120-acre farm of the nonprofit Glodev in Jacksonville, Florida, uses aquaponics and other sustainable agriculture to produce food for its community. Currently featuring two greenhouses, a garden, and an orchard, future plans include seven more greenhouses, a community garden, and a farmers market. This study aims to develop an educational curriculum assessing Eden Gardens' mission and priorities, focusing on environmental and outdoor education with aquaponics, to connect Jacksonville's youth with skills in science, sustainability, food production, and social values.
CommunityFood educationCSA & TeikeiFormative Evaluation of a Food Access Enhanced Nutrition Education Program
2019Jared T. McGuirt · Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) · United States
This mixed-methods formative evaluation, part of a larger randomized trial in four US states, assessed an affordable Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program integrated into federal nutrition education. A survey of 262 low-income adults showed high interest (85%), with more interest if a CSA was included (84%). A choice experiment (n=42) indicated preferences for a large, mixed-variety CSA box, distributed twice monthly for under $15, and not significantly further than a supermarket.
CSA & TeikeiFood educationWelfareCommunityInterpartner Risks in Solidarity Partnerships
2019Sonia Aissaoui, Pascale Bueno Merino, Samuel Grandval · · Global
This study discusses the risk of having no contract in a solidarity partnership, specifically Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) formed between an agricultural entrepreneur and consumers, based on an extreme case analysis. Through 47 semi-structured interviews, three non-participant observations, and seven additional semi-structured interviews, findings showed that trust mechanisms can quickly weaken during misunderstandings, exposing partners to the risk of exploiting the agreement. Contractual logic, particularly its coordinating function, complements trust in maintaining the stability of a solidarity partnership.
Governance failureCSA & TeikeiEconomicsPolicyRetaining Members of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in California for Economic Sustainability: What Characteristics Affect Retention Rates?
2019Ryan E. Galt, Julia Van Soelen Kim, Kate Munden-Dixon, Libby Christensen, Katharine A. Bradley · Sustainability · United States (California)
A survey of 111 Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms in California, United States, analyzed factors influencing CSA member retention rates. The study used bivariate correlations and ordinary least squares (OLS) multiple regression models to examine variables across five domains: CSA management, farmer, farm, economic characteristics, and region. Findings led to recommendations for CSA farmers and supporting organizations, including increasing season length and crop diversity, incorporating fruit into shares, aligning practices with organic standards, reducing inter-CSA competition, and adjusting marketing regions in saturated areas.
CSA & TeikeiEconomicsCommunityA Mixed-methods Examination of the Geospatial and Sociodemographic Context of a Direct-to-Consumer Food System Innovation
2019Jared T. McGuirt, Marilyn Sitaker, Stephanie Jilcott Pitts, Alice S. Ammerman, Jane Kolodinsky, Rebecca A. Seguin‐Fowler · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United States
This study examined the sociodemographic and geospatial context of cost-offset community supported agriculture (CO-CSA) pickup locations in relation to low-income customer residential locations across 23 pickup sites in four U.S. states (New York, North Carolina, Vermont, and Washington). Using GIS and interviews, it was found that pickup sites were an average of 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) from customers’ homes, further than the supermarket (2.9 miles or 4.7 km). Farmers reported efforts to select convenient locations, but CO-CSA customers expressed mixed levels of accessibility.
CSA & TeikeiWelfareEconomicsCommunity