Do Community Supported Agriculture programmes encourage change to food lifestyle behaviours and health outcomes? New evidence from shareholders

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programmes have recently received attention for their potential to influence food lifestyle behaviours and health outcomes, though studies have mostly drawn from small samples (n < 25). Therefore, we designed a survey to test whether CSA participation links to changes in food lifestyle behaviours and health outcomes, and assess if the magnitude of changes varies based on respondent characteristics. A detailed survey was distributed to existing shareholders from three midsized CSAs near Lexington, Kentucky, and produced 151 usable responses. Through 20 paired questions, respondents reported on their food lifestyle behaviours and health outcomes both prior to joining a CSA and then after CSA participation. Paired two-sided t-tests assess if paired means are statistically different, and multiple regressions of paired differences on socioeconomic factors, self-reported health, and years of CSA enrolment estimate the effect of respondent characteristics on behaviour change. The results strongly suggest that CSAs have the potential to positively impact shareholders’ food lifestyle behaviours and health outcomes, and that those reporting ‘poor health’ prior to CSA enrolment exhibited the most change overall. These results should be taken as an initial, yet promising, analysis of the impact of CSA participation on shareholder food lifestyle behaviours and health outcomes.