onclude that CSA has succeeded in forming a community of interest, but to function
properly CSA requires community built on relationships.
The “classical model” has the strongest community connotations, but many social
and economic challenges associated with this model and CSA in general have called the
role of community into question. The social dilemmas of CSA are frequently associated
with members’ unwillingness or inability to fulfill the active participation requirements
outline in the classical model. Numerous studies show that members engage in their CSA
programs to varying degrees with members given low/moderate/high participation
designations (Cone and Myhre 2000) or customer/cheerleader/partner labels (Ostrom
1997). Similar to economic challenges faced by farmers around the world, CSA farmers
are frequently underpaid and/or unfairly compensated for their work, time, and effort.
The social and economic challenges of CSA have resulted in the evolution of numerous
CSA models. In these models the traditional community-building ideals associated with
the classical model are not incorporated into the new structures.