Abstract
Current globalized agricultural and food systems operate with an unsustainable capitalist model of production and consumption. The middle and upper classes of the global North and, increasingly, of emerging economies live at the expense of the global South. This has been referred to as the “imperial mode of living”. An alternative model of production and consumption that fosters localized food systems in the corporate food regime is community supported agriculture (CSA), which aims to redefine consumer-producer relations along not just economic values. Against this background, the paper introduces an interdisciplinary conceptual framework for values-based modes of production and consumption where three categories—institutions, values and materiality—inform the empirical analysis. It examines the extent to which CSA can realize their values-based approach and how they transform the third food regime. The paper links CSA to the currently dominant third food regime and shows that, so far, CSA is just a niche in Austria. In the Austrian context, different forms of solidarity and attachment to the community are central shared ideals of CSA members and their supporters. Those values also respect nature and its materiality. However, at the same time, CSA initiatives, when implemented in daily practices, are confronted with institutional, social and material challenges. These need to be addressed if CSA is to continue long-term.
Highlights
Our current dominant mode of capitalist production and consumption is based on the deeply anthropocentric view (Vincent 1998) that nature and humans exist to be exploited (Hafner 2018, p. 53)
Taking community supported agriculture (CSA) as a concrete example of restructuring producer-consumer relations against the background of the corporate food regime and the imperial mode of living, we focused on the analysis of alternative developments in the agriculture and food system
We introduced an interdisciplinary conceptual framework that allowed analyzing CSA as values-based mode of production and consumption (VBMPC) along three dimensions to examine how CSA initiatives can realize their values-based approach within the Austrian third food regime and transform it based on their values
Summary
Our current dominant mode of capitalist production and consumption is based on the deeply anthropocentric view (Vincent 1998) that nature and humans exist to be exploited (Hafner 2018, p. 53). We present an interdisciplinary conceptual framework that is embedded in the food regime literature and that draws on the concept of the imperial mode of living This interdisciplinary approach is needed to address the challenges and opportunities of niche initiatives such as CSA in Austria. 572 f.; Schermer 2015) and includes ecological aspects and values such as fairness, trust and solidarity (McMichael 2014; Patel 2009) Another reference point for our framework is the “imperial mode of living” (Brand and Wissen 2018), which focuses on dominant norms of consumption, and on norms of production, distribution and on contextual elements of how society is organized. Brand and Wissen argue, that, to overcome the imperial mode of living, a social-ecological transformation, Fig. 1 Interdisciplinary conceputal framework for analyzing values-based modes of production and consumption understood as different forms of societal reproduction that do not follow the logic of capital accumulation and domination, is necessary.
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