TY - JOUR

T1 - Perceived resilience of community supported agriculture in Germany

AU - Rosman, Anna

AU - MacPherson, Joseph

AU - Arndt, Marie

AU - Helming, Katharina

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Authors

PY - 2024/7/19

Y1 - 2024/7/19

N2 - Context: Amid an uncertain future with increasing environmental, economic, social, and institutional challenges, farmers in Germany need to find strategies to become more resilient through capacities of robustness, adaptability, and transformability. Parallel to that, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), an alternative food and value chain network in which producers and consumers share the risks involved in farming, is rapidly spreading in the country. CSA has the potential to address sustainability concerns while at the same time improving farm resilience. Objective: The main objective of this study is to provide an understanding of how a CSA-structure on a farm may impact farm resilience. It also aims to investigate how CSA farmers in Germany perceive the resilience of their farms, its functions, and the challenges they may face in the future. Methods: A mixed methodology was applied, consisting of a case study with one CSA farmer following the approach for a resilience assessment developed by Meuwissen et al. (2019), and a survey with CSA farmers from Germany. The case study involved an in-depth interview, a resilience perception assessment and a Fuzzy-Cognitive-Mapping workshop, whose results were used as a starting point for developing the survey. Results and conclusion: The case study revealed mechanisms for improving farm resilience through CSA, particularly through increased income security, risk protection, market independence, and satisfaction. These same resilience improving mechanisms could also be identified among the surveyed CSA farmers. Overall, CSA farmers showed a high level of perceived resilience in comparison to non-CSA farmers from a similar survey in a different study. Significance: The study is the first of its kind to analyze CSA farmers in Germany through the lens of farm resilience theory. The study provides first insights to how transitioning to CSA affects the perceived resilience of farmers as well as underlying motivations. The results provide a strong indication that CSA could offer a viable strategy to help combat the resilience crisis, shedding thus a positive light on the current spread of the movement in Germany.

AB - Context: Amid an uncertain future with increasing environmental, economic, social, and institutional challenges, farmers in Germany need to find strategies to become more resilient through capacities of robustness, adaptability, and transformability. Parallel to that, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), an alternative food and value chain network in which producers and consumers share the risks involved in farming, is rapidly spreading in the country. CSA has the potential to address sustainability concerns while at the same time improving farm resilience. Objective: The main objective of this study is to provide an understanding of how a CSA-structure on a farm may impact farm resilience. It also aims to investigate how CSA farmers in Germany perceive the resilience of their farms, its functions, and the challenges they may face in the future. Methods: A mixed methodology was applied, consisting of a case study with one CSA farmer following the approach for a resilience assessment developed by Meuwissen et al. (2019), and a survey with CSA farmers from Germany. The case study involved an in-depth interview, a resilience perception assessment and a Fuzzy-Cognitive-Mapping workshop, whose results were used as a starting point for developing the survey. Results and conclusion: The case study revealed mechanisms for improving farm resilience through CSA, particularly through increased income security, risk protection, market independence, and satisfaction. These same resilience improving mechanisms could also be identified among the surveyed CSA farmers. Overall, CSA farmers showed a high level of perceived resilience in comparison to non-CSA farmers from a similar survey in a different study. Significance: The study is the first of its kind to analyze CSA farmers in Germany through the lens of farm resilience theory. The study provides first insights to how transitioning to CSA affects the perceived resilience of farmers as well as underlying motivations. The results provide a strong indication that CSA could offer a viable strategy to help combat the resilience crisis, shedding thus a positive light on the current spread of the movement in Germany.

KW - Alternative food networks

KW - Farm resilience

KW - Fuzzy cognitive mapping

KW - Satisfaction

KW - Shocks and stresses

KW - Transformation

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85199081173&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.agsy.2024.104068

DO - 10.1016/j.agsy.2024.104068

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85199081173

VL - 220

JO - Agricultural systems

JF - Agricultural systems

SN - 0308-521X

M1 - 104068

ER -