CSA and social responsibility
CSA involves shareholders intimately in the risks and bounty of farming, and the
development of social relations is usually an important goal. However, there are accounts of
CSAs which started out with a strong focus on building community, but had to adjust the
course along the way towards the more instrumental function as an alternative marketing
channel as several of the members proved to hold a different view of what the CSA was all
about than the idealistic founders (DeLind 1999). One returned survey from a member was
quoted to instruct the core group to concentrate on the vegetables, and stop forcing an
articifial community . Such experiences underlines that CSAs are truly joint ventures ,
where the results depend on everyone involved. Cone and Kakaliouras (1995) discuss the two
potential sides of CSA under the heading Building moral community or an alternative
consumer choice . Which ones of these aspects that will dominate, will ultimately be up to the
various CSAs to decide.