Community supported agriculture and agri-food networks: Growing food, community and sustainability?

Abstract

While food is a basic requirement for human survival and well-being, the ability to ensure food security, that is, access to sufficient nutritious food is determined by multiple social and political factors. At the same time, food production as the foundation of food security also provides the potential for building a new politics to work towards sustainability. Community supported agriculture (CSA) and agri-food networks are two avenues perceived as having the potential to contribute to this new politics and hence to a transition to sustainable agri-food systems. This potential resides in part in the ability of CSA, networks in general and agri-food networks in particular to generate associative relationships and social learning. The concept of association within networks is increasing in importance as levels of interdependencies and recognition of our common interests increase, that is, that we all necessarily have an interest in sustaining our socio-ecological life support systems. Both CSA and agri-food networks provide opportunities to engage in deliberation and negotiation in relation to trade-offs regarding what food is produced, how it is produced and how it is distributed. The tendency for CSA to largely avoid matters of politics may be beginning to be addressed by the forging of links with wider agri-food networks. A prominent example of the latter is the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance, which has an emphasis on local food, including CSA, and aims to work towards food security and food sovereignty. The aim in the longer term in one sense is very simple: to develop a whole network of individuals and organizations that, over time, can sustain pressure for socio-ecological change.