Community Supported Agriculture, Human Capital, and Community Health

2022 ◽  
pp. 152483992110705
Author(s):  
Celina L. Martinez ◽  
Daisy Rosero ◽  
Tammy Thomas ◽  
Francisco Soto Mas
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Food Justice ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Community Supported Agriculture ◽  
Development Education

Community supported agriculture (CSA) strengthens the local food system (LFS) and plays a critical role in promoting human capital (HC) and addressing social determinants of health (SDH). Most CSAs develop relationships that build a sense of community, and engage in activities that facilitate access to food and economic opportunities. CSAs may also contribute to personal development, education and income, working experience, and knowledge. CSA principles align with the principles of HC, specifically the pursuit of economic development. While research on the connection between CSA and HC has broadly focused on the economic aspect, the human development dimension has remained at the conceptual level. The purpose of this study was to assess the potential HC contributions by CSA and the implications for health outcomes in central/northern New Mexico. Primary and secondary data were collected through a semi-structured, open-ended questionnaire and an internet search. Purposive sampling was used to select 13 CSAs. Eight (61.5%) responded and reported activities that address HC and SDH such as training, job creation, education, access to healthy food, food security, health education and disease management, social connections, and food justice. Given the potential impact, public health must contribute to CSA by generating evidence on its health and social benefits, training practitioners on supporting local food program, and promoting policy that stimulates the local economy, fosters social relations and food justice, and empowers community members. This study calls for research and practice to take a multilevel perspective on the contribution of LFSs to equity and wellbeing.

scholarly journals The rise of the local food movement and its impact on rural economies: With examples from the Region of Durham

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 98
Author(s):  
Stacey Jibb
Keyword(s):  
Government Policy ◽  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Personal Relationships ◽  
Local Food Movement ◽  
Local Food System ◽  
Rural Economies ◽  
Food Economy ◽  
Food Movement

<p>Rural economies across North America continue to see the positive impacts of the rise of the local food movement and the evolution of the local food system. Local food is a fluid definition impacted by several factors. Government policy, geography and the personal relationships that develop between producer and consumer all play a part in shaping what is local. This has altered how consumers interact with the local food economy and has given rise to direct-farm marketing and agri-tourism as ways to participate in the local food system. Using examples from northern Durham Region, this paper examines how rural economies are impacted by the growing demand for access to local food and how that translates into direct impacts for the local economy. </p><p><strong>Keywords: </strong>local food, local food movement, rural economies, direct-farm marketing, food economy</p>

Locating the locale of local food: The importance of context, space and social relations

2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 563-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brídín E. Carroll ◽  
Frances Fahy
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Spatial Proximity ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Urban And Rural Areas

AbstractLocalization is one process/outcome that is proffered as key to the ‘grand challenges’ that currently face the food system. Consumers are attributed much agency in this potential transformation, being encouraged from all levels of society to exert their consumer muscle by buying local food. However, due to the social construction of scale it cannot be said that ‘local food’ is a definite entity and consumers understand the term ‘local food’ differently depending on their geographic and social context. As such, the research upon which this paper is based aimed to provide a nuanced understanding of how consumers in the particular spatial and social contexts of urban and rural Ireland understood the concept of ‘local food’. A specific objective was to test the theory that these consumers may have fallen into the ‘local trap’ by unquestioningly associating food from a spatially proximate place with positive characteristics. A three-phase mixed methodology was undertaken with a sample of consumers dwelling in urban and rural areas in both Dublin and Galway, Ireland: 1000 householders were surveyed; 6 focus group discussions took place; and 28 semi-structured interviews were carried out. The results presented in this paper indicate that for most participants in this study, spatial proximity is the main parameter against which the ‘localness’ of food is measured. Also, it was found that participants held multiple meanings of local food and there was a degree of fluidity in their understandings of the term. The results from the case study regions highlight how participants’ understandings of local food changed depending on the food in question and its availability. However, the paper also indicates that as consumers move from one place to another, the meaning of local food becomes highly elastic. The meaning is stretched or contracted according to the perceived availability of food, greater or lesser connections to the local producer community and the relative geographic size of participants’ locations. Our analysis of findings from all three phases of this research revealed a difference in understandings of local food among participants resident in urban and rural areas: participants dwelling in rural areas were more likely than those in urban areas to define local food according to narrower spatial limits. The paper concludes with an overview of the practical and theoretical significance of these results in addressing the current dearth of research exploring the meaning of local food for consumers and suggests avenues for future research.

What does ‘local’ mean in the grocery store? Multiplicity in food retailers' perspectives on sourcing and marketing local foods

2010 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonnie B. Dunne ◽  
Kimberlee J. Chambers ◽  
Katlyn J. Giombolini ◽  
Sheridan A. Schlegel
Keyword(s):  
Local Food ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Grocery Store ◽  
Market Potential ◽  
Farmers Markets ◽  
Community Supported Agriculture ◽  
Grocery Stores ◽  
Local Foods ◽  
Local Food Movement ◽  
Food Retailers

AbstractLocal food systems are comprised of networks of actors that work to ensure the sustainability of food supplies within communities. While local food has typically been promoted through direct marketing strategies such as farmers' markets and community-supported agriculture (CSA), retail stores are increasingly carrying and marketing local foods in response to consumer demand and market potential. Given the frequency with which consumers shop at grocery stores, as well as the portion of consumers' food purchases made at these locations, these stores may play a significant role in the success of local agriculture and the shaping of ideology about what is ‘local’. We conducted 27 semi-structured interviews with representatives of food retailers known to source and market local foods in the four major urban centers of Oregon's Willamette Valley. Our results reveal that grocers' perceptions of local food vary significantly from one another. Additionally, our results differed in comparison to the published literature on consumers' and producers' ideas of what constitutes local. Food retailers identified varying distances (frequently a region including several states) that they consider local, as well as diverse reasons for choosing to source and market local foods (most commonly supporting the local economy). Some trends in the variation of responses relate to how the size and form of ownership of the grocery stores influence the level at which decisions are made. These wide-ranging perceptions outline many of the realities of the local food movement, as well as opportunities for change.

Local food communities: exploring health-related adaptivity and self-management practices

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilona Liliána Birtalan ◽  
Ágnes Neulinger ◽  
György Bárdos ◽  
Adrien Rigó ◽  
József Rácz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Consumption ◽  
Food Environment ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Self Management ◽  
Community Supported Agriculture ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Health Related

PurposeWhile many characteristics of food consumption have been examined, little attention has been given to the health potential of consuming from local food communities. Local food communities, including community supported agriculture (CSA) are food initiatives, which try to respond to the healthy food, environmental or socioeconomic challenges of the food system. As a step toward understanding local food communities, this study sets out to examine the health-related adaptivity and self-management practices of CSA participation.Design/methodology/approachThe qualitative research approach, which included semi-structured interviews (n = 35), was designed to discover the potential for being healthy: the ability to adapt and to self-manage among CSA participants. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis.FindingsThe results suggest that local food communities can influence health-related adaptivity and self-management in the following themes: awareness of product origins; enhanced food-management capability; expanding applicability and usability of the food environment; and strengthening one's food-related self-image.Practical implicationsIncreasing the presence of local food communities might be part of developing strategies to evaluate the health effects of the local food environment and to encourage consumers to take responsibility for their own health.Originality/valueThis study extends the food consumption literature to include new knowledge about how local food communities facilitate individual efforts to enhance their own potential for health as well as improving understanding of the mechanisms that underpin a healthy diet.

Differential expenditure patterns of local food system participants

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Becca B.R. Jablonski ◽  
Todd M. Schmit
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
New York State ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Local Market ◽  
Expenditure Patterns ◽  
Local Food System ◽  
Food Sales

AbstractSince 2009 the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has funded over 2600 local food initiatives. However, the economic impacts of these policies remain unclear largely due to data deficiencies that preclude the understanding of differential expenditure patterns of farms participating in these local market channels (both in terms of what inputs they require, and where the inputs are purchased—local or not). This paper utilizes two unique data sets from samples of producers in New York State (NYS) to build expenditure profiles for local food system participants. We employ USDA Agricultural Resource Management Survey data as a robustness check on our results. The primary contribution of this paper is to provide preliminary evidence that local food system participants in NYS have different expenditure patterns than farmers who do not sell through local food markets. We show that farmers with local food sales have higher reliance on local labor and other variable expenses as primary inputs than farms without local food sales, and that local food producers spend a higher percentage of total expenditure in the local economy. Based on our results, we recommend that future economic impact assessments utilize revised expenditure profiles that more accurately reflect inter-industry linkages of the local food sector.

scholarly journals Social movements as agents of change: Fighting intersectional food inequalities, building food as webs of life

2021 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 603-625
Author(s):  
Renata Motta
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Animal Rights ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Food Sovereignty ◽  
Food Justice ◽  
Food Movements ◽  
Justice Movements

What does the diversity of social movements and food initiatives tell us about processes of social change? I argue that they offer a productive analytical lens to observe social change because they identify injustices and dynamics of inequalities in the food system and are actively engaged in transforming these. Alternative local food initiatives react to the environmental impacts of globalized food relations; food sovereignty movements highlight class inequalities and power asymmetries in the food system that affect people’s rights to culturally appropriate foodways; food justice movements denounce institutional racism; feminist movements fight persistent gender inequalities from food production to consumption; vegan movements defend animal rights. These are often mapped onto different world regions, with food justice movements more present in the US; food sovereignty movements louder in the Global South; feminist food movements more active in Latin America; and local food movements commonly in the Global North. This article brings together diverse strands of activism and research on social inequalities related to food under the conceptual umbrella of food inequalities. In addition to concept building, it contributes to a sociology of food studies by mapping the geopolitics of knowledge about social change behind the growing mobilization around food issues.

Disruptive innovation and operationalization in local and sustainable food systems: Examining the University of Toronto-Local Food Plus partnership

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 120-139
Author(s):  
Lori Stahlbrand
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Disruptive Innovation ◽  
Government Support ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
University Of Toronto ◽  
The University

This paper traces the partnership between the University of Toronto and the non-profit Local Food Plus (LFP) to bring local sustainable food to its St. George campus. At its launch, the partnership represented the largest purchase of local sustainable food at a Canadian university, as well as LFP’s first foray into supporting institutional procurement of local sustainable food. LFP was founded in 2005 with a vision to foster sustainable local food economies. To this end, LFP developed a certification system and a marketing program that matched certified farmers and processors to buyers. LFP emphasized large-scale purchases by public institutions. Using information from in-depth semi-structured key informant interviews, this paper argues that the LFP project was a disruptive innovation that posed a challenge to many dimensions of the established food system. The LFP case study reveals structural obstacles to operationalizing a local and sustainable food system. These include a lack of mid-sized infrastructure serving local farmers, the domination of a rebate system of purchasing controlled by an oligopolistic foodservice sector, and embedded government support of export agriculture. This case study is an example of praxis, as the author was the founder of LFP, as well as an academic researcher and analyst.

Creating a local food procurement community of practice: The Alberta Flavour Learning Lab

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Anne Beckie ◽  
Leanne Hedberg ◽  
Jessie Radies
Keyword(s):  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Provincial Government ◽  
Local Foods ◽  
Social Infrastructure ◽  
City Region ◽  
Physical Scale ◽  
Common Framework

In order for local food initiatives (LFIs) to have a transformative effect on the larger food system, greater levels of economic, organizational and physical scale are needed. One way for LFIs to reach the scale necessary to generate a more significant impact is through increased institutional procurement of local foods. But how do people and organizations come together to generate the social infrastructure required to shift food purchasing practices and processes? This field report shares the story of an innovative community of practice consisting of institutional food buyers, large-scale distributors, regional retailers, processors, producers, researchers, municipal and provincial government representatives within the Edmonton city-region that formed for the express purpose of “creating a positive community impact by getting more local foods on more local plates”. In describing the formation and first three years of the Alberta Flavour Learning Lab we examine the unique characteristics of this community of practice that has aided the development of a common framework for learning, understanding and joint action. In addition to the accomplishments to date, we also discuss the challenges faced by the Learning Lab and the strategies used to overcome them.  

Motivating the staff of Jazan University

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1261-1267
Author(s):  
Ali Medabesh
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Quality Of Service ◽  
Economic System ◽  
Endogenous Growth ◽  
Employee Satisfaction ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Financial Investment

The quality of public services and the yield of organizations are not limited to the financial investment and innovation solely. Human capital plays a critical role in the growth and excellence in institutions, but its contribution remains dependent on several factors. Its role is not limited on quantitative and qualitative accumulating, because it should be coherent and integrated in the development process. The theories of endogenous growth contributed to account for the disparity in levels of development between countries, by assuming that the extent of human capital response or inversely lack of responsiveness the economic system. This inaction is usually the prime cause of the deterioration of the quality of service and lack of satisfaction of the citizens, in addition of the lack of employee satisfaction about the circumstances of his work. Hence, arose the significance of several research about the mechanisms of reducing non-enthusiasm for the job or complacency professional and indifference. Staff of Jazan University has been chosen as a context of the empirical investigation of this study. The data has been collected using a well designed questionnaire and analyzed by SPSS program.

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