Abstract
This paper focuses on examining the dynamic nature of community supported agriculture (CSA) and the real-world experiences which mark its contours, often making it distinct from the early idealized CSA “model.” Specifically, our study examines the narratives of the farmers of Devon Acres CSA over its duration, in tandem with a survey of recent shareholders in order to understand and explain its evolution. The framework we develop here shows that this CSA is largely characterized by instrumental and functional beliefs and practices, with some elements in the collaborative mode. A key contribution of this research is the development of a framework which helps to highlight the relative fluidity and patchwork quality of CSA participant positions over time. At Devon Acres, the real-world factors and issues influencing CSA evolution are seen to be products of both the local and larger contexts, evident in such areas as shifts in farmer learning and adaptation, differences between beliefs and practices in member volunteer efforts, and changes in farm and resource conditions. With respect to CSA more broadly, we argue that the reality of dominant food system context and site-specific influences on CSA development compels us to rework our attachment to early idealized “model” traits. Expansion in CSA numbers, evidence of adaptation and situated learning, and retention of the local and organic as core traits, speak to the pragmatic yet transformative potential of CSA contribution to food system change.
Notes
Share-price was raised to $430 in 2007, from its previous level of $325. This along with having the shareholders come up to the farm to get their weekly baskets are examples of the implementation of this research project’s Fall of 2006 recommendations to the CSA.
References
Alkon, A. 2008. Paradise or pavement: the social constructions of the environment in two urban farmers markets. Local Environment 13 (3): 271–289.
Allen, P., M. FitzSimmons, M. Goodman, and K. Warner. 2003. Shifting plates in the agrifood landscape: the tectonics of alternative agrifood initiatives in California. Journal of Rural Studies 19: 61–75.
Ambach, M. 2002. Food for thought: community supported agriculture and learning. MA Thesis, Concordia University, Montreal.
Campbell, D. 2001. Conviction seeking efficacy: sustainable agriculture and the politics of cooptation. Agriculture and Human Values 18: 353–363.
Cone, C.A., and A. Myhre. 2000. Community-supported agriculture: a sustainable alternative to industrial agriculture? Human Organization 59 (2): 187–197.
Connell, D., J. Smithers, and A. Joseph. 2008. Farmers markets and the “good food” value chain: a preliminary study. Local Environment 13 (3): 169–185.
Cousin, G. 2005. Case study research. Journal of Geography in Higher Education 29 (3): 421–427.
Cox, R., L. Holloway, L. Venn, L. Dowler, J. Hein, M. Kneafsey, and H. Tuomainen. 2008. Common ground? Motivations for participation in a community shared agriculture plan. Local Environment 13 (3): 203–218.
DeLind, L.B. 1999. Close encounters with a CSA: the reflections of a bruised and somewhat wiser anthropologist. Agriculture and Human Values 16: 3–9.
DeLind, L.B., and A. Ferguson. 1999. Is this a women’s movement? The relationship of gender to community-supported agriculture in Michigan. Human Organization 58 (2): 190–200.
Dilley, P. 2004. Interviews and the philosophy of qualitative research. The Journal of Higher Education 75 (1): 127–132.
Dyck, B. 1997. Build in sustainable development and they will come: a vegetable field of dreams. British Food Journal 99 (9): 325–335.
Feagan, R. 2008. Direct marketing towards sustainable local food systems? Local Environment 13 (3): 161–167.
Groh, T., and S. McFadden. 1997. Farms of tomorrow revisited: community supported farms-farm supported communities. Kimberton: Bio-dynamic Farming and Gardening Association.
Hassenein, N. 2003. Practicing food democracy: a pragmatic politics of transformation. Journal of Rural Studies 19: 77–86.
Hendrickson, M., and W. Heffernan. 2002. Opening spaces through relocation: locating potential resistance in the weaknesses of the global food system. Sociologia Ruralis 42: 347–369.
Hinrichs, C.C. 2000. Embeddedness and local food systems: notes on two types of direct agricultural market. Journal of Rural Studies 16: 295–303.
Jacques, S., and L. Collins. 2003. Community supported agriculture: an alternative to agribusiness. Geography Review 16 (5): 30–33.
Johnson, L. (ed.). 2007. The natural treasures of Carolinian Canada. Toronto: Carolinian Canada Coalition, Lorimer Pub.
Jorgenson, D.L. 1989. Participant observation: a methodology for human studies. Applied social science research methods, vol. 15. Newbury Park: Sage Publications.
Kaktins, S.-L. 1997. Community shared/supported agriculture: overcoming the barriers. Master Thesis, Dalhousie University, Halifax
Kirwan, J. 2004. Alternative strategies in the UK agro-food system: interrogating the alterity of farmers’ markets. Sociologia Ruralis 44: 395–415.
Kloppenburg, J., J. Hendrickson, and G.W. Stevenson. 1996. Coming into the foodshed. Agriculture and Human Values 13 (3): 33–42.
Lapping, M. 2004. Toward the recovery of the local in the globalizing food system: the role of alternative agricultural and food models in the US. Ethics, Place and Environment 7 (3): 141–150.
Lass, D., G.W. Stevenson, J. Hendrickson, and K. Ruhf. 2003. CSA across the nation: findings from the 1999 CSA survey. Madison: Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Lincoln, Y.S., L.G. Thorp, and C. Russon. 2003. The storied nature of agriculture and evaluation: a conversation. Agriculture and Human Values 18: 267–276.
Local Harvest. 2008. Community supported agriculture. http://www.localharvest.org/csa.jsp. Accessed 20 February 2008.
Loughridge, K.B. 2002. Community supported agriculture in the Mid-Atlantic United States: a sociological analysis. PhD Dissertation, North Carolina State University, Raleigh.
Mascarenhas, M. 2001. Farming systems research: flexible diversification of a small family farm in southeast Michigan. Agriculture and Human Values 18: 391–401.
McFadden, S. 2004. The history of community supported agriculture part II: CSA’s world of possibilities. http://www.newfarm.org/features/0204/csa2/part2.shtml. Accessed 28 January 2008.
O’Hara, S.U., and S. Stagl. 2001. Global food markets and their local alternatives: a socio-ecological economic perspective. Population and Environment: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 22 (6): 533–553.
O’Hara, S.U., and S. Stagl. 2002. Endogenous preferences and sustainable development. Journal of Socio-Economics 31: 511–527.
Okomura, N. 2004. Where are the movements going? Comparisons and contrasts between the Teikei movement in Japan and community supported agriculture in the United States. MSc. Thesis, Michigan State University, Ann Arbor
Ostrom, M.R. 1997. Toward a community supported agriculture: a case study of resistance and change in the modern food system. PhD Dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison.
Picardy, J.A. 2001. Closing the distance gap through community supported agriculture. Master Thesis, Michigan State University, Lansing
Robyn Van En Center. 2006. Community supported agriculture. http://www.wilson.edu/wilson/asp/content.asp?id=804. Accessed 28 August 2006.
Sage, C. 2003. Social embeddedness and relations of regard: alternative “good food” networks in south-west Ireland. Journal of Rural Studies 19: 47–60.
Schnell, S.M. 2007. Food with a farmer’s face: sommunity-supported agriculture in the United States. The Geographical Review 97 (4): 550–564.
Seidman, I.E. 1991. Interviewing as qualitative research: a guide for researchers in education and the social sciences. New York & London: Teachers College Press.
Stringer, E.T. 1996. Action research: a handbook for practitioners. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Tegtmeier, E., and M. Duffy. 2005. Community supported agriculture (CSA) in the Midwest United States: a regional characterization. Ames: Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Iowa State University.
Torjussen, H., G. Lieblen, and G. Vitterso. 2008. Learning, communicating and eating in local food-systems—the case of organic box schemes in Denmark and Norway. Local Environment 13 (3): 219–234.
Wells, B.L., and S. Gradwell. 2001. Gender and resource management: community supported agriculture as caring-practice. Agriculture and Human Values 18: 107–119.
Wells, B.L., S. Gradwell, and R. Yoder. 1999. Growing food, growing community: community supported agriculture in rural Iowa. Community Development Journal 34 (1): 38–46.
Worden, E.C. 2000. Community supported agriculture: land tenure, social context, production systems and grower perspectives. Ph.D. Dissertation, Yale University, New Haven.
Zsolnai, L. 2002. Green business or community economy? International Journal of Social Economics 29 (8): 652–662.
Acknowledgements
We want to acknowledge the three anonymous referees for this paper as well as the editor of Agriculture and Human Values whose recommendations were of genuine value in revising the paper. Our thanks go as well to the Kirby family, whose devotion to CSA and organic principles at the Devon Acres Farm are salutary and of deep local importance in terms of the kinds of transformations to which alternative agriculture aspires. And to Seamus and Max who dutifully eat “outside the box.”
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Feagan, R., Henderson, A. Devon Acres CSA: local struggles in a global food system. Agric Hum Values 26, 203–217 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-008-9154-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-008-9154-9