Collaborative Community Supported Agriculture in Community and Economic Development

Poster

Speaker:
Corry Bregendahl
515-294-2878
corry@iastate.edu
North Central Regional Center for Rural Development

Cornelia Flora
North Central Regional Center for Rural Development

In the wake of industrialized agriculture, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) was adopted in the U.S. as part of a growing movement to relocalize agriculture to reconnect consumers with producers, the land, and communities. Since its inception, CSA has been noted for helping create rural economic opportunities, conserve the environment, and reshape community relationships. Yet to what extent is this true?

In partnership with the Iowa Network for Community Agriculture and Magic Beanstalk CSA, the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development is conducting research of CSA in Iowa. While most for-profit CSAs are owned and operated by a single proprietor or farm family, a few are comprised of a coalition of small, collaborating farmers. Funded by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, this project examines the role collaborative CSA plays in incubating small farm-based business, generating support for farmers, and creating healthy rural communities. This poster presents results from the study based on telephone interviews with collaborative CSA coordinators, and surveys of their respective producers and members. From this poster, conference attendees will learn the community and economic development benefits of engaging in collaborative CSA, as well as some of the challenges its organization poses to small, local, organic farmers and the communities they serve. Attendees will also become familiar with a framework in which the community impact of collaborative CSA (or any other small farm business) can be measured. This framework considers impacts of enterprises in terms of their ability to build environmental, financial/built capital, human, political, social, and cultural capital.