Abstract
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is one of the widely used direct marketing strategies for small- and midsized farmers. CSA programs are an important option for sustainable production and consumption. It helps growers generate income (improve financial security) and consumers obtain fresh local foods. Sustaining and growing CSA participation is critical in order to continue enjoying these benefits. We used a national online survey in conjunction with discrete choice models to investigate the impact of demographic characteristics, lifestyle preferences, and different information outlets on the probability that a consumer is or will become a CSA member. The results indicate that the factors affecting current and future CSA participation differ substantially. While none of the demographic characteristics has a significant impact on current CSA participation, some of them significantly affect the probability that a consumer will become a CSA member in the future. Lifestyle preferences have a significant impact on current and future CSA participation. Although none of the information outlets examined affect current CSA participation, word-of-mouth and online sources significantly influence the probability that a consumer will join a CSA program in the future. These findings may have important implications for policy makers’ and CSA farm managers’ efforts to sustain future CSA development.
Highlights
Consumer preferences for food have drastically changed over the last decades
It is crucial to identify: (i) the types of consumers who are likely to participate in community-supported agriculture (CSA) arrangements in the future; (ii) the impact of different information outlets on the decision to participate in CSA arrangements; and (iii) aspects of CSA agreements that help retain current CSA members
Because the responses to the question regarding current CSA membership or non-membership are dichotomous, a probit model was utilized to evaluate the impact of the selected explanatory variables on the probability that a survey respondent was a member of a CSA arrangement during the time of the survey
Summary
Consumer preferences for food have drastically changed over the last decades. Besides the nutrients provided by food, consumers increasingly care about the impact of food production on the environment and society [1,2,3]. Brown and Miller [14] provide a comprehensive review of papers relevant to the aforementioned topic Their findings indicate that CSA membership leads to healthier eating habits, and, in some cases, to lower cost for consumers. Identifying the factors that influence the probability an individual will join a CSA arrangement in the future, at the national level, is a relatively unexplored topic in the literature because the majority of the previous research focus on limited geographical areas. It is crucial to identify: (i) the types of consumers who are likely to participate in CSA arrangements in the future; (ii) the impact of different information outlets on the decision to participate in CSA arrangements; and (iii) aspects of CSA agreements that help retain current CSA members The answers to these questions will provide valuable insights to farm managers in order to better understand CSA marketing, promote the sustainability of CSA marketing, retain current CSA members, and attract new CSA members. The national sample allows us to investigate the influence of region of residence on the probability that a consumer will join a CSA arrangement in the future
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