To a certain extent this may be
correct. DeLind (1999) said even if the difficulties she faced in her two years managing a CSA
farm in Michigan had been easier, she doubted that the “community aspect of CSA would have
flowered into anything more meaningful” (p. 6).
Press and Arnould (2011) went on to use the concept of American pastoralism to explain
the movement of community supported agriculture into the cultural mainstream. “We show that
American pastoralism provides a link between 19th century agrarian ideals, 1950s suburbia,
1970s counter-cultural communes, and today’s CSAs” (p. 168). This link, Press and Arnould
(2011) said subverted the negative ideas attached to consumption, making this CSA transaction a
source of moral superiority. The CSA purchase was repackaged as a morally superior consumer
choice while singling out the industrial food system “as the key symbol of the discontents of
urban civilization” (p. 189)