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Community-Supported Agriculture

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics

Synonyms

Community shared agriculture; Subscription farming

Introduction

Community-supported agriculture (CSA) is one of an array of alternative agricultural processes. Related terms include sustainable agriculture, local food systems, regenerative agriculture, alternative food networks, and civic agriculture. CSA is continually evolving as it adjusts and matures within the interstices of the global food system. Though there is increasing variation in CSA, it is essentially characterized as “… a localized food production and consumption system, organized to share farming risks between producers and consumers, practice ecologically sensitive forms of food production, and contribute to building community and educating the shareholders about agricultural processes and realities through their participation” (Feagan and Henderson 2009, p. 203). Beyond these basics, CSA operations can vary considerably with respect to such things as how and where the “share” is accessed, opportunities for...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Society, Culture and Environment, Wilfrid Laurier University at Brantford, 73 George St, N3T 2Y3, Brantford, ON, Canada

    Robert Feagan PhD

Authors
  1. Robert Feagan PhD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Robert Feagan PhD .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Michigan State University Dept. Philosophy, East Lansing, Michigan, USA

    Paul B. Thompson

  2. University of North Texas Dept. Philosophy & Religion Studies, Denton, Texas, USA

    David M. Kaplan

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Feagan, R. (2014). Community-Supported Agriculture. In: Thompson, P., Kaplan, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6167-4_62-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6167-4_62-3

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  • Online ISBN: 978-94-007-6167-4

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