Research & reports

Craig J. Thompson, Gökçen Coskuner-Balli · Journal of Consumer Culture · Global

This article analyzes Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) as a form of ethical consumerism. The analysis explicates how CSA's aspects allow consumers to perceive its practical inconveniences and choice restrictions as moral virtues. The article concludes by assessing the societal implications of these localized marketplace relationships.

Mark Anderson-Wilk · Journal of Soil and Water Conservation · Global

This abstract discusses the concept of Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA), pioneered in Japan and Europe in the 1960s and introduced to the US in the mid-1980s. CSAs are described as a model where individuals become farm members, sharing the risks and benefits of food production and receiving shares of local produce. The abstract introduces the question of whether CSAs support natural resource conservation but does not present any specific findings or conclusions regarding this question.

· · Global

A discussion piece describes the growth of new forms of food retailing in Europe and North America in which fresh, high-quality produce is sold directly by producers. The most visible example is the rise of farmers' markets in urban locations, alongside a revival of street and municipal markets and new arrangements such as farm shops, box schemes, community-supported agriculture and cooperative bulk purchasing. It characterizes the shared feature of these initiatives as reconnecting food producers and consumers directly, in relationships largely severed by the dominance of corporate multiple retailers, and notes that "alternative food networks" is the term commonly used to cover this range of forms. No empirical data is presented.

Emma Lea, Jodi Phillips, Madeleine Ward, Anthony Worsley · Ecology of Food and Nutrition · Australia (Victoria)

This qualitative study interviewed 20 consumers and 12 farmers in Victoria, Australia, to examine their knowledge, perceived benefits, and barriers regarding Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). The study found that knowledge of CSA was limited among both groups. Consumers perceived fresh food as a benefit but cited lack of produce choice as a barrier, while farmers saw financial benefits but were concerned about risk-sharing.

Christine King · Proceedings of the 50th Annual Meeting of the ISSS - 2006, Sonoma, CA, USA · Global

This paper reports on research exploring how alternative agricultural approaches, such as Organic Agriculture, Biodynamics, Permaculture, CSAs, Farmers Markets, and Community Gardens, contribute to more resilient agri-ecological systems and communities. These systems are reviewed in relation to key concepts from ecological systems thinking, including ecological resilience, biodiversity, and holism. The paper discusses how these systems contribute to more sustainable and resilient communities through community development processes like relationship building, genuine participation, inclusiveness, resource mobilization, and creating space for knowledge sharing.

Karin Andersson · · Sweden

This study analyzed Ramsjo gard, the only Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm in Sweden, from a sustainability perspective using a mail survey of CSA members and a farm sustainability analysis. The survey found no statistically significant relationship between farmer-member contact and member learning, nor between member learning and changes in food purchasing habits. The sustainability analysis indicated that farmers perceived social and environmental aspects as more sustainable than economic and practical ones.

E. Melanie DuPuis · Crop Management · Global

An essay arguing that today's agricultural markets have fragmented into diverse "niches," in contrast to the past commodity-based marketing system that offered farmers only a few stable outlets. It notes the organic market niche itself is splitting into sub-niches, and that the growth of large-scale industrial organic agriculture has left smaller organic farmers with diminishing access to mainstream buyers, since supermarkets prefer dealing with larger firms. As a result, some farmers are turning to alternative markets—direct marketing, farmers markets, Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs), and more recently localized or fair-trade markets—though the paper states the dynamics of these alternative markets remain poorly understood.

Steffen Adler, Stephanie Fung, G. Huber, Lee Hoon Young · Organic Eprints (International Centre for Research in Organic Food Systems, and Research Institute of Organic Agriculture) · Sweden

Case studies were conducted on three alternative producer-consumer links in Sweden: Stockholm Farmers Market, Ramsjö Community Supported Agriculture, and Järna Initiative for Local Production. An adapted SWOT analysis identified key strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and constraints from multiple perspectives including producers, consumers, the organization, environment, and society. The research assessed how these links might affect surrounding ecosystems and social aspects of the agri-food system, and identified six components contributing to agri-food system development.

Cynthia A. Cone, Andrea Myhre · Human Organization · Global

A five-year study of eight Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms examined farm members' perceptions and behavior, including motivations for membership and women's roles. The study raises questions about the long-term sustainability of CSA, citing tension between farmers' lifestyles and needs, and shareholders' constraints and competing values.

Helen L. La Trobe, Tim Acott · International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology · Global

An article arguing that while organic farming can address many environmental problems associated with agricultural intensification, it cannot on its own fully resolve the social and economic problems caused by the globalization of the food system, against a backdrop of increasingly industrialized, mechanized and chemical-input-dependent agriculture. It argues organic farming needs to be combined with local and regional direct marketing — such as farmers' markets, food box delivery schemes and Community Supported Agriculture — to move toward a more socially, environmentally and economically sustainable agrofood system.

Paul L. Swanson · Lincoln (University of Nebraska) · Global

This NebGuide, published by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is a practical explainer describing what community-supported agriculture (CSA) is, how it works, and what producers need to do to participate — not an empirical study. At the time of writing, most Nebraskans had not heard of CSA, though the concept was about three decades old in Japan and Europe and 10-15 years old on the US East Coast. In Japan, amid continued loss of farmland to urbanization and farmers' migration to cities, a group of women approached local farm families proposing direct marketing of produce to urban residents; the resulting cooperative buying-club arrangement, called teikei, now involves millions of people. In Europe, farmers and community members concerned about food-system industrialization started the CSA model in the early 1970s. In the United States, two farms in the eastern US began CSAs based on the European model in 1986, and the guide states that more than 1,500 CSA farms existed across the country by the time of publication.

Richard L. Farnsworth, Saråhelen Thompson, Kathleen A. Drury, Richard E. Warner, Farnsworth, Richard L., Thompson, Sarahelen R., Drury, Kathleen A., Warner, Richard E. · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · Global

This research suggests that social objectives primarily drive CSA shareholders' decisions to join, with economic and "club-related" objectives being secondary. While the CSA movement is expected to grow, its emphasis on social objectives, inability to supply food year-round, and the development of size-neutral organic technologies will likely prevent it from becoming a major market channel in the next century.