Prospects for the future: Community supported agriculture in Hungary

Abstract

Alternative food supply systems have been a subject of increasing interest for many decades in various perspectives of food and agriculture studies. This paper contributes to the discussion by examining how farmer led Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) movement in Hungary creates an alternative in the dominant food regime. To examine CSAs future potentials, semi-structured interviews with producers, consumers-members, and experts, a consumer-member survey, and secondary data sources were utilized. We analyse ambiguities or uncertainties of production, logistics, economic viability, and community formation to sort out social and material practices that co-produce goods and values centred on sustainability. We conclude that CSAs create open and democratic spaces of active and direct producer-consumer cooperation and thus present a model for rethinking our food system. However the scaling up of these experiences is the main challenge today.