Placing community supported agriculture in local food systems

Community supported agriculture (CSA) has grown in recent years as a marketing and distribution option for farmers. CSA involves ‘shareholders’ subscribing to a regular share of a farm’s harvest. The experiential structure of CSA provides opportunities for farmers to develop relationships with consumers and strengthen their local food systems (LFSs). By bringing consumer perspectives into view, LFS development personnel and other stakeholders may better understand where their residents place value within their unique systems. In this manuscript, we focus on the place of CSA in LFSs. Using survey responses from 13 communities in the Southeastern United States, we ask how different aspects of LFSs are perceptually linked to CSA by consumers. From these responses, residents seem to be more aware of CSA if they have knowledge about other direct markets–such as farmers markets or specialty retail stores–or are exposed to local food campaigns and branding efforts. Similarly, residents more positively evaluate CSA performance if they have similar evaluations of direct markets and experience with on-farm activities. These patterns differ depending on the location of the respondent. We see a role for place-based LFS promotion activities and consumer education programmes in most communities.