Over the past one hundred years, there has been an increasing globalization and
industrialization of the food systems. As a result, the distance between the production and the consumption of food has increased, both in time and space and in the minds of
people. There is also an increasing concern for the environmental effects of industrial
farming and the long distance transportation of food.
Sustainable agriculture and efforts to build more sustainable food systems has emerged in
opposition to the global food market. The definitions of sustainability usually include
environmental, social and economical aspects. To build more localized food systems is
seen as one way towards increased sustainability. Examples of local food initiatives are
Farmer's Markets, food box delivering systems and Community Supported Agriculture
(CSA). In CSA the consumers share the economical risks of farming with the farmers by
buying a share in the yearly produce of for example vegetables and herbs from a farm.
CSA creates a direct contact between producer and consumer and includes learning
opportunities for both parts.
In this study, the only CSA farm in Sweden, Ramsjö gård, is analyzed from a
sustainability point of view. The main focus is on the contact between the farmers and the
CSA members, and the learning and changes in purchase habits that is a possible result of
the CSA membership. The methods used were a mail survey among the CSA members
and a sustainability analysis of the farm.
The results from the mail survey showed that the members of this CSA are quite similar
to CSA members in general. They are generally well educated and belong to the middle
class. A majority of the people answering the survey are women. There are many families
with children. There was no statistically significant relationship between the degree of
contact between farmers and CSA members and what the members had learnt from their
membership. It was not possible to see any relation between if the members had learnt
something from their CSA membership and if they changed their food purchasing habits.
The sustainability analysis showed that the farmers perceived the social and
environmental aspects of the...
