| Recognition of the many social and ecological problems associated with conventional agriculture has led to increasing public and academic interest in alternative approaches that are deemed more socially and ecologically sound. This research is a study of one such approach: community supported agriculture, or CSA. In the prototypical CSA model, a consumer becomes a member of a particular farm, buying a "share" at the beginning of the growing season that helps the farmer or farmers pay for the costs of running the farm and entitles the consumer-member to weekly portions, or shares, of the harvest throughout the growing season. The basic premise of CSA is for members and farmers to share the risks and benefits of farming. If, for example, there is a drought one year, members may receive smaller than average shares, but another year might be an exceptionally productive one, giving members larger than average shares. Importantly, unlike other farmers experiencing productive downturns, the CSA farmer has a guaranteed income for the growing season, providing a buffer from fluctuations in the weather and in the market. This direct partnership between consumers and producers is what distinguishes CSA from other forms of direct agricultural marketing. Ideally, this direct partnership is an enduring one, with CSA members and farmers mutually supporting each other year after year.;A central concern among those who study alternative approaches to agriculture regards whether such approaches have the potential to fundamentally alter dominant social and ecological relationships. Following in this research tradition, I use participant observation and in-depth interviews with a group of farmers and others involved in CSA in a community in the Pacific Northwest to explore how the ideal of CSA as a fundamentally different approach to agriculture fares in the reality of capitalist society. I find that there are tensions and contradictions in how various farmers and others approach and understand CSA. I interpret these points of conflict as both constraints and opportunities for CSA as an agent of social change. |
