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Community Supported Agriculture
The North Central Regional Center for Rural Development recently received a one-year grant to study collaborative Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in Iowa. The grant was awarded through the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agricultures 2005 Marketing and Food Systems Initiative.
As agriculture becomes more globalized and farm-to-fork food miles multiply, consumers become increasingly removed from the people and places that produce the food they eat. Some people along the food chain are attempting to reverse this trend by participating in Community Supported Agriculture. CSA reconnects consumers with producers, the land, and their communities. It (re)localizes agriculture by promising to create rural job opportunities, retain local income, and reshape community relationships. While many CSA enterprises are owned and operated by a single proprietor or family, others are cooperative ventures in which multiple producers participate.
This project will study the role played by for-profit, multi-producer CSA in strengthening local and regional food systems. The study will determine whether collaborative CSA in Iowa and the North Central Region acts as a business incubator for single family/individually owned CSA. Research activities will also focus on how collaborative CSA impacts the business decisions and actions of local agricultural entrepreneurs. In addition, the study will identify the factors that compel producers and consumers to invest in CSA, and factors that prompt them to withdraw.
NCRCRD is partnering with CSA producers, organizers, members, and the Iowa Network for Community Agriculture to help in this effort. NCRCRD is also looking for partners to study collaborative CSA in states within the North Central Region. Results from this study will be used to develop educational and outreach activities. These activities will be used to inform rural community and economic development planners, policymakers, and local foods-based entrepreneurs, consumers, organizations, advocates, and interests how to best support small-scale, rural agricultural enterprise at the community, state, and regional levels.
Reports
- Bregendahl, Corry and Cornelia Butler Flora. 2006. The Role of Collaborative Community Supported Agriculture: Lessons from Iowa. Ames, IA: North Central Regional Center for Rural Development. (PDF format, 632 kb)
- Bregendahl, Corry and Cornelia Butler Flora. 2006. Research Brief: Results from Iowa's Collaborative CSA Member Survey. Ames, IA: North Central Regional Center for Rural Development. (PDF format, 272 kb)
Media, Press Releases and Publications
- "Local Food Consumption," by Corry Bregendahl was published in the September 2006 issue of Rural Roads, a magazine of the National Rural Health Association. "Local Food Consumption" has been linked with permission from the National Rural Health Association (PDF format, 111 kb). Citation:
- This article was also mentioned in the November 17, 2006 issue of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference electronic Bulletin.
- "Out to Lunch: How to Support Your Community in Less than a Day," by Corry Bregendahl was published in the Summer 2006 Edition of Vanguard, the newsletter of the Community Development Society. The article reports on NCRCRD's collaborative CSA research and its implications for community development. Access the article online at http://cds.vicnet.net.au/vanguard/September-2006/pg8.htm.
Bregendahl, Corry. "Local Food Consumption." Rural Roads 4 (September 2006): 16-19.
- Talk of Iowa, transcript from July 14, 2005 broadcast (PDF format, 114 kb)
- Talk of Iowa, audio from July 14, 2005 broadcast (WAV file, 63,092 kb)
- How Can Extension Educators Promote and Support Local Food System Development? (PDF format, 357 kb)
Presentations (by date)
- Contributions and Challenges of Collaborative Community Supported Agriculture: Lessons from Iowa by Cornelia Butler Flora, Jan Libbey, Corry Bregendahl and Karen Joslin. Presented at the 4th National Small Farm Conference in Greensboro, North Carolina, October 2005. PDF format (1,822 kb)
- The Role of Collaborative Community Supported Agriculture (cCSA): Lessons from Iowa. By Corry Bregendahl and Cornelia Flora. Presented at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture Marketing and Food Systems Initiative Workshop in Ames, Iowa, December, 2005. (PDF format, 347 kb)
- Using the Community Capitals Framework to Study the Role of Collaborative Community Supported Agriculture (cCSA) in Iowa. By Corry Bregendahl. Presented at the Community Capitals Workshop in Ames, Iowa, December, 2005. (PDF format, 302 kb)
- Lessons from Collaborative CSA in Iowa. By Corry Bregendahl. Presented at the Iowa Network for Community Agriculture's Annual Conference in Des Moines, Iowa, February, 2006. (PDF format, 730 kb)
- Collaborative Community Supported Agriculture: Growing Assets Workshop. By Corry Bregendahl and Gary Guthrie. Presented to a group of alternative producers in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota with support from Bridging Brown County, March, 2006. (PDF format, 1,272 kb)
- Community Supported Agriculture (cCSA): Supporting Women and Communities. By Corry Bregendahl. Presented at the National Extension Women in Agriculture Conference in St. Louis, Missouri, April, 2006. (PDF format, 466 kb)
- Collaborative Community Supported Agriculture: The Effect of Diverse Benefits on Member Retention. By Corry Bregendahl, Cornelia Flora and Arion Thiboumery. Presented at the Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, June 2006. (PDF format, 346 kb)
- Measurement of the Community Capitals in Local Food Systems Research. By Corry Bregendahl and Cornelia Butler Flora. June 2006 (PDF format, 309 kb)
- The Role of Collaborative Community Supported Agriculture (cCSA): Lessons from Iowa. By Corry Bregendahl. Presented at the 2006 SARE National Conference in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, August 2006. (PDF format, 524 kb) Photo (Corry Bregendahl (r) speaking to conference attendee at the NCRCRD booth.
Surveys and Notes
Producer survey, PDF format (134 kb)
Member survey, PDF format (143 kb)
Report from the 2005 National Workshop on State and Local Food Policy, PDF format (34 kb)
North
Central Regional Center for Rural Development
Iowa State University
107 Curtiss Hall
Ames, IA 50011-1050
(515) 294-8321, (515) 294-3180 fax
For questions, comments or concerns about the NCRCRD website, contact .
Last updated January 9, 2007