Regional Cooperation in Community Supported Agriculture as a Driver of Resilient Local Food Systems
Alternative food networks (AFNs), and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in particular, are an example of sustainable farming practices. This paper focuses on regional cooperation and its consequences for food security by evaluating data from German field studies. Currently, the market share of CSA in Germany is marginal in absolute terms. However, there is great potential for increase as there is at least one CSA farm in almost every German region. The objective of this study is to assess the potential of CSA diffusion through regional cooperation and its impacts on the food sovereignty of a region. After elucidating the importance of food sovereignty as an indicator of food security and introducing the concept of CSA, we present an analytical framework for regional cooperation in CSA. Here we analyse (1) “Who cooperates?”, (2) “Why does cooperation occur?” and (3) “How does cooperation take place?”. Our special focus is on the phenomenon of community supported cooperation (CSC) as the most collaborative form of cooperation found within the CSA environment. Adopting a transdisciplinary approach, we consider the impacts of CSC on food production as well as on the overall resilience of a region using both theoretical tools and empirical sources. Finally, the differences and similarities as well as the replicability of regional cooperation in Germany are viewed in a global context by linking it to the numerous CSA projects worldwide.
Schlagwörter:
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA); Regional cooperation; Organizational fields; Entrepreneurial ecosystems; Inter-organizational relations; Food sovereignty; Agricultural service providers (ASPs); Alternative food networks (AFNs); Local food systems (LFSs); Community supported cooperation (CSC)
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