Building understanding of Community Supported Agriculture from within the community
We are a group of researchers passionate about Community Supported Agriculture and other emerging local, short food supply chain solutions as pathways toward a better food system. These are a fast-growing phenomenon in Europe and take a number of different forms. What connects us as researchers are the close ties we have to CSAs and other similar projects throughout Europe, meaning we also bring considerable practical experience from the field to contribute to research in it.
The seeds for the CSA research group were sown at the First European CSA Meeting in Milan in 2012. The idea we had was to create a platform for participatory research on CSA from within the community. The group met again at the Second European CSA Meeting in Paris in early 2014 and more members joined the group.
Currently, we represent over ten European countries (and speak the languages). We represent diverse fields of research, including geography, sociology, economics and environmental studies. Many of us are actively involved in local CSAs and similar food projects and we have close ties to local and regional networks. This means we can draw from a large and diverse pool of knowledge in our research efforts.