OASIS: An Experiential Learning Class in Organic Production

The Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farming model made its first appearance in the US in the 1980s, arriving from Europe and with clear social, economic and environmental goals. From less than a dozen CSA farms in the early 1990s, the movement has now expanded to over 3,000 farms. The proliferation of this agricultural-economic model suggests a measure of success in its objectives, yet shifting market influences reveal that CSA farms are faced with a variety of challenges and strategic issues that affect their ability to perform well for their members, farmer-owners and communities. This paper undertakes a strategic analysis of the CSA market and makes core strategy recommendations to inform farm managers’ strategic planning decisions. As more CSA farms are to be found nationwide, it follows that more individuals are taking on launching farming operations that adhere to the model, and this paper intends to cater to those entrepreneurs. As beginning farmer and rancher training programs are establishing themselves through farming coalitions, at community colleges and with the support of government funding, the new CSA farmer may find this strategic analysis pertinent and helpful. While it is the case that most beginning farmer workshops and training programs emphasize the development of small-scale production techniques, a few have tread into the realm of business planning; yet, it remains uncommon to see strategic analysis and planning included in curricula. Attention to these broad-­perspective approaches to farm management is important to keep farm managers in touch with the needs and preferences of their members—as an ever-­increasing selection of local, sustainably produced farm products are competing for CSA customers. This paper begins with a review of pertinent scholarly work that provides the framework for an analysis of the CSA market. Business strategy literature offers an assortment of applicable analytic tools for entrepreneurs and managers, but three, the idea of core competencies, Michael Porter’s Five Forces analysis, and his strategic planning method, are examined in relative depth and then applied to the CSA market. Building from these tools, subsequent sections examine strengths and weaknesses common among CSA enterprises, the opportunities and threats relevant to them in the market, and discuss the most pertinent strategic issues following a Five Forces market analysis. The CSA model’s four core competencies are formulated then presented: a relatedness with consumers, a perceived superiority of products, the sharing of a complete experience of a farm, and the employment of sustainable agricultural practices. While each farm will need to decide on its own strategic plan and objectives, a general core strategy is presented herein that addresses the market forces and current challenges faced by CSA farmers. I then make a general strategic recommendation for CSA farm managers and tie this plan to specific business activities that, carried out, may serve to enforce the core competencies commonly found in the CSA model and strengthen the competitive advantages of these farms. Key in this strategy is a focus on customer attraction, customer expectations and retention, and a broadening of the strategic scope of 3 farm enterprises. Important for the longevity of CSA farms will be a repositioning of current strategy to build on the competitive advantages found in the CSA model.

The effects of competition within alternative food networks (AFNs) remain largely unexplored. Using a study of farms that operate Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programmes in California, the state in the USA with the most CSAs, we empirically examine the effects of competition within alternative food networks. We conducted a statewide survey of CSA farmers in California, which collected data from 111 CSAs. For this analysis we construct a perceived competition index composed of variables that measure farmers' perceptions of competition with numerous market outlets and their being constrained in raising their prices due to competitive pressures. Our analysis shows that perceived competition is negatively correlated with CSA farms' profitability, farmers' satisfaction on a number of fronts, various indicators of the social embeddedness of CSA, and two community food security strategies. We conclude that competition is a real, although differential, phenomenon experienced by many CSA farmers in California, and that this competition impacts CSA in ways that undermine some of its commonly held values, especially fair farmer compensation and strong member‐farmer relationships.

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.KeywordsCommunity Supported Agriculture (CSA)Regional cooperationOrganizational fieldsEntrepreneurial ecosystemsInter-organizational relationsFood sovereigntyAgricultural service providers (ASPs)Alternative food networks (AFNs)Local food systems (LFSs)Community supported cooperation (CSC)

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.6in 0pt 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has undergone both a rapid increase in growth and interest over the last two decades.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>As such, the amount of literature on the subject has also increased.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>However, there are few, if any, theoretical models of supply for CSA memberships (shares) that have been developed from CSA farm data.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>This paper uses both survey and anecdotal data from the Roxbury Biodynamic Farm, one of the largest CSA in the United States, to present a theory of supply for CSA membership.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Included in the discussion is the consideration that CSA farms are not profit maximizing and that the farmers (i.e. the suppliers) knowingly take on the responsibilities and earnings associated with a CSA.</span></span></p>

Since 2005, four insurance providers in southern Wisconsin have offered rebates to policyholders who subscribe to a local community supported agriculture (CSA) operation. Rebate program participants rely on the Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition (MACSAC) — an organization that supports CSA farms and educates consumers about local food systems — to connect the insurance companies with CSA growers and consumers and to manage various aspects of the CSA rebate program, including vetting participating farms. The rebate makes fresh, seasonal, locally and organically grown fruits and vegetables more accessible to consumers by reducing the cost of a CSA share by up to 40%. As a result, CSA members report increased consumption of fruits and vegetables, one of the main goals of the program. With marketing overseen by MACSAC and the insurance companies, the rebate program has led to a reduction in the amount of time growers spend on advertising their operations and recruiting CSA members and has contributed to increased member retention from year to year. Additionally, both the number of MACSAC member farms and the total number of shares offered by these farms have increased substantially since the rebate program's inception. These trends reduce some of the risk growers face and allow them to expand production in order to serve a larger consumer base. These outcomes associated with the MACSAC organization and the insurance rebate program indicate the success of the program, the importance of MACSAC as an organizing body, and the potential for implementing the program among national providers and in other locations where community supported agriculture is prevalent.

Community-supported agriculture (CSA) seeks to create a direct relationship between farmers and those who eat their food—farm members or shareholders. Data from a five-year study of eight CSA farms are used to examine the perceptions and behavior of farm members in three different ways: their motivations for membership, the role of women in initiating and maintaining farm membership, and how the extent of membership participation relates to member perceptions about and commitment to their farms. We interpret the significance of our results using Gidden's concept of modernity and Etzioni's concept of communitarianism. Finally we raise questions about the long-term sustainability of CSA, given the lifestyle and needs of the farmers in tension with the constraints and competing values of shareholders.

Social innovations responding to the local needs of farmers and consumers are the subject of recent studies, and their results indicate effectiveness in mitigating the effects of crises and, in the long run, in building the resilience of local communities to future challenges. One of the social innovations is the Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) model. This article presents the current status of active CSA groups in Poland. The paper’s main objective is to identify active CSA farms in Poland and then analyse the individual farms’ CSA offers, the number of people they reach, and their members’ characteristics, motivation, and degree of involvement. As of 2023/2024, when the study was conducted, 13 food-producing farmers were inventoried for 35 groups, reaching an estimated 1200 people. Taking into account the Polish context and referring to the experience and examples of CSA communities in Europe and the world, the following conclusions were drawn: the need to establish an umbrella organisation to network the current CSA community in Poland and to support the already active farmers through, among other things, advocacy, education and coordination of CSA model development at the national level.

PurposeReplicating colonization at Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) must be addressed from the root, structurally. At New Mexico State University (NMSU) the authors are aimed to commit to going beyond counting and enrolling, to center servingness.Design/methodology/approachHSIs will continue to struggle in fulfilling their mission, especially given the fast-growing Latina/e/o/x populations in the United States (US). A major challenge all HSIs face is the contrasting demographics between the student population, the faculty and staff and the administration – with HSI administrations consistently being predominantly White.FindingsHence, in this piece the authors shed light on the important work the authors have done these last two years through collaborative efforts to transform the institution and center servingness. Judith as the Interim Director of Chicano Programs, and Linda as the inaugural Vice President for equity, inclusion and diversity.Originality/valueHerein, the authors now share about the genre of testimonio as a decolonial methodology and about the experiences in our work as we attempt to decolonize the praxis at an HSI.

Interviews with Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) growers in Iowa, a majority of whom are women, shed light on the relationship between gender and CSA as a system of resource management. Growers, male and female alike, are differentiated by care and caring-practices. Care-practices, historically associated with women, place priority on local context and relationships. The concern of these growers for community, nature, land, water, soil, and other resources is manifest in care-motives and care-practices. Their specific mix of motives differs: providing safe and nutritious food, educating self and others, and building relationships with other growers, shareholder-members, and the land. Care-practices include reducing or eliminating chemical usage, encouraging or accepting beneficial insects and wildlife, building soil, and creating resource management partnerships with shareholder members. CSA, viewed through a lens of care, may offer a means of transcending gender stereotypes.

Ground beetles (Carabidae) are beneficial insects providing ecosystem services by regulating insect pests and weed seeds. Despite several studies conducted on ground beetles worldwide, there is a lack of knowledge on how these insects are affected by differently managed organic systems (e.g., tillage-based versus grazed-based) compared to that of chemical-based no-tillage conventional cropping systems. In a 5-year (2013–2017) study, we assessed the ground beetle communities in cover crops and winter wheat (Triticum aestivium L.) in Montana, USA, with three contrasting cropping systems: a chemically managed no-tillage, a tillage-based organic, and a livestock-integrated organic with reduced tillage. The first three years (i.e., 2013–2015) corresponded to the transition to organic period, while the last two (i.e., 2016–2017) were conducted in United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) organic-certified tillage-based and livestock-integrated organic systems. The experiment was designed with three management systems across three blocks as the whole plot variable and 5-year rotation of crop phases as the subplot variable. Using pitfall traps, we sampled ground beetles across all cover crop and winter wheat subplots for five years (n = 450). The data were analyzed using mixed effects models and PERMANOVA and visualized with non-metric multidimensional scaling ordination. Our study indicated that organically managed farms, whether tilled or grazed, enhance activity density, species richness, diversity, and evenness of ground beetles in the dryland row crop productions. Also, irrespective of farming system, cover crops supported higher species richness, diversity, and evenness of ground beetles than winter wheat. The ground beetle communities were mostly similar during the transition to organic period. However, during the established organic phase, cropping systems acted as contrasting ecological filters and beetle communities became dissimilar. Cover cropping affected ground beetle communities positively not only in organically managed systems but also in chemical-based conventional systems. Our study provides evidence supporting the adoption of ecologically-based cropping systems such as crop-livestock integration, organic farming, and cover cropping to enhance beneficial insects and their pest-regulation services.

Several scholars have claimed that small-scale agriculture in which farmers sell goods to the local market has the potential to strengthen social ties and a sense of community, a phenomenon referred to as “civic agriculture.” Proponents see promise in the increase in the number of community supported agriculture (CSA) programs, farmers markets, and other locally orientated distribution systems as well as the growing interest among consumers for buying locally produced goods. Yet others have suggested that these novel or reborn distribution mechanisms are still primarily means of instrumental economic exchange and that optimistic characterizations of a renewed sense of community emerging from these practices are unfounded. This study provides an empirical assessment of the extent to which these community-based agriculture markets are associated with connection to community, volunteerism, and civic and political activities. In order to assess the relationship between civic agriculture and community engagement, we surveyed over 1,300 people in the Mid-Hudson region of New York State. The study design includes “civic agriculture participants” as the unit of analysis, defined as CSA farm members, shoppers at independent health food stores, and farmers market patrons. For comparison, a telephone survey of randomly selected residents of the region’s general population was also conducted. Unlike studies that focus solely on the perceptions of certain civic agriculture participants (e.g., CSA members), by comparing the perceptions and behaviors of those engaged in a range of civic agriculture practices, we are able to identify the effects of different forms of participation. The results demonstrate higher levels of voluntarism and engagement in local politics among civic agriculture participants relative to the general population. In addition, we found variation among those engaged in different forms of civic agriculture, with those immersed in more socially embedded forms of exchange demonstrating greater community and political involvement. These findings lend empirical support to the civic agriculture thesis.

USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range and Jornada Basin LTER, MSC 3JER, Box 30003, Las Cruces, New Mexico 88003, USA; Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico 88003, USA; U.S. Geological Survey Southwest Biological Science Center, 2290 SW Resource Blvd, Moab, Utah 84532, USA; Present address: Department of Animal and Range Science, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico 88003, USA

The environmental benefits of cover cropping are widely recognized but there is a general consensus that adoption levels are still quite low among US farmers. A survey was developed and distributed to more than 200 farmers engaged in two sustainable farming organizations in NC and the surrounding region to determine their level of utilization, current practices and perceptions related to cover cropping. The majority of farms surveyed had diverse crop production, production areas <8 ha, and total gross farm incomes <US$50,000. Approximately one-third of the survey population had an organic production component. Eighty-nine percent of participants had a crop rotation plan and 79% of the total survey population utilized cover cropping. More than 25 different cool- and warm-season cover crops were reported. The statements that generated the strongest agreement about cover crop benefits were that cover crops: increase soil organic matter, decrease soil erosion, increase soil moisture, contribute nitrogen to subsequent cash crops, suppress weeds, provide beneficial insect habitat and break hard pans with their roots. Economic costs associated with cover cropping were not viewed as an obstacle to implementation. A factor analysis was conducted to identify underlying themes from a series of positive and negative statements about cover crops. Pre- and post-management challenges were able to explain the most variability (30%) among participant responses. Overall, participants indicated that the incorporation of residues was their greatest challenge and that a lack of equipment, especially for no-till systems, influenced their decisions about cover cropping. Farmers did not always appear to implement practices that would maximize potential benefits from cover crops.

Long-Term Vegetation Productivity and Trend Under Two Stocking Levels on Chihuahuan Desert Rangeland

Hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth), common vetch (V. sativa L. `Cahaba White'), arrowleaf clover (Trifolium vesiculosum Savi `Yuchi'), crimson clover (T. incarnatum L. `Tibbee'), red clover (T. pratense L. `Redland II'), yellow nutsedge (Cyperus esculentus L.), buckwheat (Fagopyrum sagittatum Gilbert), hairy indigo (Indigofera hirsuta L.), bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum Flugge `Pensacola'), common bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.], and centipedegrass [Eremochloa ophiuroides (Munro) Hack] were grown for 3 years in a 3 × 3-m spacing around young pecan [Carya illinoinensis (Wangenh.) K. Koch] trees. Compared to weed-free plots, all cover crops suppressed tree growth substantially, and there were no differences among cover crops in the degree of suppression. Mean trunk cross-sectional area of weed-free trees increased 26-fold by the end of the third growing season but increased only 13-fold for trees grown with any cover crop. These results suggest that cover crops, if grown in young pecan orchards to promote beneficial insects, should be excluded from the immediate area around the young trees.