Community Supported Agriculture in the Pearl River Delta

Abstract

While community supported agriculture (CSA) is becoming an increasingly popular form of agriculture in some parts of China, there is limited understanding about the barriers of promoting and developing CSA in a local food system. There is little published evidence about attitudes towards CSA and how public opinion influences the demand for, and the development of, CSA in the Pearl River Delta. This chapter aims to investigate CSA by considering a range of factors such as spatial distribution and customer perception to explore how CSA contributes to the local food system and reducing concerns about food safety in China. By focussing on different factors of development of CSA farming, this chapter will investigate the role of CSA farms in the local food system in the Pearl River Delta. The chapter will identify current socio-economic and environmental catalysts and barriers for CSA farming and explore the developing opportunities for this emerging type of urban agriculture in the Pearl River Delta.