scholarly journals Community-supported agriculture (CSA): significance and prospects for growth for individuals, communities, and food systems.

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (061) ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Mert-Cakal
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Direct Interaction ◽  
Community Supported Agriculture ◽  
Civic Agriculture ◽  
Food Network ◽  
Alternative Food Network ◽  
Barriers And Opportunities ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Rural Places

Abstract Community-supported agriculture (CSA) is an alternative way of supplying food based on direct interaction between producers and consumers. As an alternative food network (AFN) and a form of civic agriculture, it is considered a more sustainable way of food production and consumption compared to the conventional food system. The number of CSA initiatives has been increasing in the last few decades worldwide parallel to growing scholarly debates about its usefulness, viability and potential. This article contributes to the review of the following: The impacts of CSA on individuals and communities, including motives for involvement and benefits received; the impacts of CSA on food systems, particularly on sustainability; and the barriers and opportunities for CSA growth. We conclude that CSA addresses the needs for sustainable and ecologically sound food and contributes to community building by reconnecting urban and rural places and people with their food. It is also an active position against the unsustainable dominant food systems and shows a different way of caring for the planet and the people. However, in order to grow, CSA needs to overcome certain barriers, namely financial difficulties, unrealistic member expectations and the need for social justice by providing livelihoods for the farmers and becoming more inclusive in terms of race, income and gender. The COVID-19 crisis presented an opportunity for CSA to become more effective as the CSA initiatives demonstrated resilience during lockdowns and the demand for their products increased.

scholarly journals The Small World of the Alternative Food Network

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 2921 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Brinkley
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Small World ◽  
Alternative Food ◽  
Term Survival ◽  
Food Network ◽  
Robust Network Design ◽  
Alternative Food Network

This research offers the first use of graph theory mathematics in social network analysis to explore relationships built through an alternative food network. The local food system is visualized using geo-social data from 110 farms and 224 markets around Baltimore County, Maryland, with 699 connections between them. Network behavior is explored through policy document review and interviews. The findings revealed a small-world architecture, with system resiliency built-in by diversified marketing practices at central nodes. This robust network design helps to explain the long-term survival of local food systems despite the meteoric rise of global industrial food supply chains. Modern alternative food networks are an example of a movement that seeks to reorient economic power structures in response to a variety of food system-related issues not limited to consumer health but including environmental impacts. Uncovering the underlying network architecture of this sustainability-oriented social movement helps reveal how it weaves systemic change more broadly. The methods used in this study demonstrate how social values, social networks, markets, and governance systems embed to transform both physical landscapes and human bodies. Network actors crafted informal policy reports, which were directly incorporated in state and local official land-use and economic planning documents. Community governance over land-use policy suggests a powerful mechanism for further localizing food systems.

scholarly journals Alternative Food Networks Development and Multiple Actors’ Participation in China: A Review

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huan Yang
Keyword(s):  
Food System ◽  
Alternative Food ◽  
Community Supported Agriculture ◽  
Alternative Food Networks ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Food Network ◽  
Food Networks ◽  
Alternative Food Network ◽  
The Government

This article reviews the studies about the alternative food network development in China, summarizes the results and identifies the issues for further research. It first introduces different theoretical perspectives in alternative food network studies in China, including community supported agriculture, nested market, short food supply chains and producerconsumer connection. The causes of rising alternative food networks are the serious food safety problem, the un-balanced power between different actors in the mainstream agrofood system and the increasing number of middle income citizens. Its development close relates to the changes in the international agro-food system. And the government dominates the establishment of the certification system and give limited support to the emerging food networks. The consumers and majority of producers are social elites, and the small scale farmers participate in the networks under the support of intermediaries. Further studies can pay more attention to following issues: the landscape of alternative food networks development in China, the value construction processes between different actors, the role of companies in alternative food network construction and introducing technical perspective of ecological agriculture into research.

Sustainable Food Logistics Systems

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhaohui Wu ◽  
Madeleine Elinor Pullman
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Food Supply ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Cold Chain ◽  
Community Supported Agriculture ◽  
Food Supply Chain ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Chain Management

Food supply chain management is becoming a critical management and public policy agenda. Climate change, growing demand, and shifting patterns of food production, delivery, and consumption have elicited a series of new challenges, such as food security, safety, and system resiliency. This chapter first introduces the typical players in a food supply chain and examines the global food system characterized by consolidation and industrialization. It then discusses some critical topics of the sustainable food supply chain that aim to address these challenges. These topics include traceability, transparency, certification and standards, and alternatives to industrialized food systems, including cooperatives, community-supported agriculture, and roles of small and medium-sized growers in regenerative agriculture. The chapter ends with a discussion of several important emerging logistics management topics, including last-mile delivery, new technology, and cold chain management.

scholarly journals From Transition to Domains of Transformation: Getting to Sustainable and Just Food Systems through Agroecology

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (19) ◽  
pp. 5272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Ray Anderson ◽  
Janneke Bruil ◽  
Michael Jahi Chappell ◽  
Csilla Kiss ◽  
Michel Patrick Pimbert
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Natural Ecosystems ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Exchange Networks ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
And Gender

The acceleration of ecological crises has driven a growing body of thinking on sustainability transitions. Agroecology is being promoted as an approach that can address multiple crises in the food system while addressing climate change and contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals. Beyond the more technical definition as, “the ecology of food systems”, agroecology has a fundamentally political dimension. It is based on an aspiration towards autonomy or the agency of networks of producers and citizens to self-organize for sustainability and social justice. In this article, we use the multi-level perspective (MLP) to examine agroecology transformations. Although the MLP has been helpful in conceptualizing historic transitions, there is a need to better understand: (a) the role of and potential to self-organize in the context of power in the dominant regime, and (b) how to shift to bottom-up forms of governance—a weak point in the literature. Our review analyzes the enabling and disabling conditions that shape agroecology transformations and the ability of communities to self-organize. We develop the notion of ‘domains of transformation’ as overlapping and interconnected interfaces between agroecology and the incumbent dominant regime. We present six critical domains that are important in agroecological transformations: access to natural ecosystems; knowledge and culture; systems of exchange; networks; discourse; and gender and equity. The article focuses on the dynamics of power and governance, arguing that a shift from top down technocratic approaches to bottom up forms of governance based on community-self organization across these domains has the most potential for enabling transformation for sustainability and social justice.

Transforming the Campus Foodscape Through Participatory Mapping

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosalie Zdzienicka Fanshel ◽  
Alastair Iles
Keyword(s):  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Campus Climate ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Community Members ◽  
University Campuses ◽  
Diverse Community ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Individual

University campuses are dynamic foodscapes that meet the needs of thousands of diverse community members. These foodscapes are difficult to comprehend in their entirety, and inequities based on race, class, gender and gender identity, sexual orientation, dis/ability, and other forms of marginalization often remain unidentified and unaddressed. Since 2015, the UC Berkeley Foodscape Mapping Project has emerged as a model of participatory, justice-oriented food systems education. Drawing on critical pedagogy principles, it uses the Berkeley campus as a living laboratory for students, staff, and faculty to generate food systems knowledge. We trace the project’s development to show how what started as a set of workshops to address campus climate problems grew into a major mapping effort and advocacy projects that aim to improve the campus food system. Early on, workshops found that the biggest barrier to changing our campus food system was understanding the system itself: who the individual and departmental decision makers are and how different parts of the foodscape interact. Foodscape mapping is one possible pathway for changing a campus food system. This pathway was chosen because it could create a much-needed data foundation for advocacy at UC Berkeley. We discuss the concept of mapping and work through the process of building the Campus Food Players map. Several examples of Spotlight Maps and a practical policy advocacy project are presented to show the variety of outputs. Finally, we analyze financial, personnel, and pedagogical resources needed to realize the map, along with important constraints on its development. Readers will learn about campus foodscape mapping and be better equipped to develop projects at their own campuses.

scholarly journals Working Co-operatively for Sustainable and Just Food System Transformation

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 2816 ◽  
Author(s):  
Poppy Nicol ◽  
Alice Taherzadeh
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Policy Transfer ◽  
Community Supported Agriculture ◽  
Future Research ◽  
System Transformation ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Food Hubs ◽  
Justice And Care ◽  
Scaling Out

Co-operative ways of working can be understood as people-centred approaches. This article considers how co-operative ways of working have the potential to support the scaling-out of sustainable and just food systems in the context of Wales through people-centred change. Drawing upon a series of interviews with stakeholders involved in the sustainable and the co-operative food sector within Wales and international case studies, opportunities and challenges facing the scaling-out of sustainable and just food systems are considered. Findings demonstrate the potential of co-operative and community-based approaches to sustainable production, processing, distribution, and trading of healthy food that is affordable, culturally appropriate, and based upon an ethic of justice and care for land, workers, and animals. Community supported agriculture, incubator farms, food hubs, and platform co-operatives are identified as key mechanisms for sustainable and just food systems. Capacity building through education, information, and training are further critical foundations for co-operative and people-centred ways of working. In order to accelerate sustainable and just food futures, community-based participation, networks for training, access to resources and land, and transformative forms of governance, including legislative change, are key. We conclude by highlighting implications for future research into policy transfer and food system transformation.

Food Justice and the Challenge to Neoliberalism

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Hope Alkon
Keyword(s):  
Social Transformation ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Food Justice ◽  
Local Alternatives ◽  
Alternative Food Systems ◽  
Food And Agriculture ◽  
Popular Interest ◽  
Voluntary Market ◽  
And Gender

As popular interest in food and agriculture has grown, so have an array of social movements intent on improving the ways we grow, raise, process, sell, and consume our sustenance. While scholars tend to agree with activists’ critical assessments of the failures of the industrial, corporate, chemically intensive food system, they often wonder whether the sustainable, local alternatives that activists recommend are sufficient for broad social transformation. Two scholarly critiques of US alternative food systems revolve around issues of food justice, meaning the ways that race, class, and gender affect who can produce and consume what kinds of foods, and neoliberalism, which refers to activists’ privileging of voluntary, market-centric strategies over those that appeal to the regulatory power of the state. This paper lays out three strategies through which the work of US food justice activists can address both critiques. These include cooperative ownership, organizing labor, and pushing to outlaw risky technologies. However, rather than being at odds with the alternative foods market, each strategy makes use of it as a venue from which to draw targeted support.

scholarly journals Know the Farmer That Feeds You: A Cross-Country Analysis of Spatial-Relational Proximities and the Attractiveness of Community Supported Agriculture

Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1006
Author(s):  
Christina Gugerell ◽  
Takeshi Sato ◽  
Christine Hvitsand ◽  
Daichi Toriyama ◽  
Nobuhiro Suzuki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Principal Component Analysis ◽  
Food System ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Component Analysis ◽  
Alternative Food ◽  
Spatial Proximity ◽  
Community Supported Agriculture ◽  
Alternative Food Networks ◽  
Food Networks ◽  
Alternative Food Network

While food production and consumption processes worldwide are characterized by geographical and social distance, alternative food networks aim to reconnect producers and consumers. Our study proposes a framework to distinguish multiple dimensions of proximity in the context of Community Supported Agriculture (a type of alternative food network) and to quantitatively evaluate them. In a principal component analysis, we aggregated various detailed proximity items from a multinational survey using principal component analysis and examined their relationship with the attractiveness of Community Supported Agriculture in a multiple regression analysis. Our findings highlight the importance of relational proximity and thus of increasing trust, collaboration, and the sharing of values and knowledge within and across organizations in the food system. Rather than focusing on spatial proximity, increasing relational proximity might support alternative food networks, such as Community Supported Agriculture.

scholarly journals Gendered and Racial Injustices in American Food Systems and Cultures

Humanities ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 66
Author(s):  
Sally Kitch ◽  
Joan McGregor ◽  
G. Mauricio Mejía ◽  
Sara El-Sayed ◽  
Christy Spackman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Multiple Scales ◽  
The United States ◽  
Food Justice ◽  
Gender Inequalities ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Consumption Practices ◽  
And Gender

Multiple factors create food injustices in the United States. They occur in different societal sectors and traverse multiple scales, from the constrained choices of the industrialized food system to legal and corporate structures that replicate entrenched racial and gender inequalities, to cultural expectations around food preparation and consumption. Such injustices further harm already disadvantaged groups, especially women and racial minorities, while also exacerbating environmental deterioration. This article consists of five sections that employ complementary approaches in the humanities, design studies, and science and technology studies. The authors explore cases that represent structural injustices in the current American food system, including: the racialized and gendered effects of food systems and cultures on both men and women; the misguided and de-territorialized global branding of the Mediterranean Diet as a universal ideal; the role of food safety regulations around microbes in reinforcing racialized food injustices; and the benefits of considering the American food system and all of its parts as designed artifacts that can be redesigned. The article concludes by discussing how achieving food justice can simultaneously promote sustainable food production and consumption practices—A process that, like the article itself, invites scholars and practitioners to actively design our food system in ways that empower different stakeholders and emphasize the importance of collaboration and interconnection.

scholarly journals Quantifying differences in alternative food network supply chain activities and their relationship with socio-economic outcomes

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Erik Hunter ◽  
Andreas Norrman ◽  
Eva Berg
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Alternative Food ◽  
Farmers Markets ◽  
Community Supported Agriculture ◽  
Alternative Food Networks ◽  
Economic Returns ◽  
Food Network ◽  
Food Networks ◽  
Alternative Food Network ◽  
Fair Wages

Alternative food networks (AFNs) have the potential to enhance and redistribute value in favour of producers and consumers through novel ways of organizing supply chain activities. What is more, AFNs are often characterized by their ‘sustainability promise’ – or the idea that their networks foster social, ecological or environmental improvements over conventional food networks. Based on a purposive sample of 286 producers across five Swedish AFNs (i.e. community supported agriculture, REKO-rings, farmers’ markets, farm stores and food nodes), we explore how differences in how supply chain activities are managed and relate them to profitability, fair wages, cooperation, logistics efforts, happiness and future beliefs. Using a combination of correlation analysis, linear regression and means comparisons, we challenge the notion that AFNs achieve their sustainability promise or enhance value through novel combinations of supply chain activities. Our findings include several key differences in how supply chain management (SCM) activities are organized across AFNs and their variant importance for profitability. Moreover, we find significant differences in happiness across AFNs that are better explained through beliefs about the future than profitability or fair wages. By exploring happiness and profitability, we offer insights into why some AFN actors thrive despite poor economic returns.

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