Retaining Members of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in California for Economic Sustainability: What Characteristics Affect Retention Rates?

Ryan E. Galt, Julia Van Soelen Kim, Kate Munden-Dixon, Libby O. Christensen and Katharine Bradley
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Ryan E. Galt: Department of Human Ecology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
Julia Van Soelen Kim: UC Cooperative Extension, Novato, CA 94947, USA
Kate Munden-Dixon: Geography Graduate Group, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
Libby O. Christensen: Colorado State University Extension, Steamboat Springs, CO 80477, USA
Katharine Bradley: Independent Scholar, New York, NY 11205, USA

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 9, 1-20

Abstract: Community supported agriculture (CSA) is one response to major ecological and social problems in the conventional agrifood system. Here we are concerned with how CSA management can enhance the economic sustainability of CSAs. More specifically, using a survey of 111 CSA farms in California, we analyze how specific variables in five domains—CSA management characteristics, farmer characteristics, farm characteristics, economic characteristics, and region—influence retention rates (the proportion of CSA members continuing from one year to the next). Our analysis involves first conducting bivariate correlations, then building a simple causal model that theorizes the direction of causation, then constructing a series of ordinary least squares (OLS) multiple regression models to hold constant independent variables. Our discussion draws out recommendations from our findings for CSA farmers and organizations that support CSA, including increasing the length of the season, increasing crop type diversity, including fruit in standard shares, bringing farming practices into line with organic standards, working with other CSAs to reduce inter-CSA competition, and changing marketing regions for farms in certain regions that appear to be highly saturated. We conclude by identifying more collective routes that CSAs can take to cultivate “CSA people” for a more sustainable economic dimension of CSAs in the long term.

Keywords: community supported agriculture (CSA); economic sustainability; retention rates; competition; CSA management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:9:p:2489-:d:226667

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