Fostering civic engagement is one of the predominant
themes emanating from the data analysis. As the following quotations indicate, participants described their
deliberate efforts to join the CSA as a reflection of
their growing concern about access to healthy food
and the desire to support local farmers.
The idea of having your food come from somewhere
local, in season and organic I think are fairly important. Knowing [the co-founders], . . . and now contributing to their livelihood and their way of life is sort
of an interesting way of looking at it, rather than just
contributing to Zehrs [large grocery chain in south
western Ontario] . . . (participant #6).
Obviously helping the local farmer. I’ve got farm
history in my family as well so that was pretty important. Yeah, getting produce and vegetables and products that are organic, without pesticides, which
aren’t hurting the land, the production of which is
not hurting the land (participant #1).
. . . supporting people who are growing organically is
a really good thing to do. . . . We make organic and
conventional nut butter, so that whole idea has been
part of my consciousness for a long time, so belonging to a CSA is another way of helping that style of
agriculture grow (participant #2).
I just feel I’ve been concerned about the whole GMO
thing for several years, passionately. And I feel that
it’s a key issue that strikes right at the heart of agriculture. It’s the core of humanity. . . . I think all those
issues need to be addressed. What do we do about
GMOs? How have we allowed that to happen?
What is the role of the consumer in relation to that?
Those are my questions. I want to know why that
is. How did it come about that we haven’t cared
enough to want to force the government – that
we’ve allowed them to build this structure? I find it
incredibly upsetting. And CSA is just all movement
in the right direction (participant #3).
These comments support the findings of other CSA
research. For example, Tegtmeier and Duffy (2005,
p. 5) report that, ‘CSA may spur local, civic involvement
by energizing environmental initiatives, preservation of
open and rural landscapes and other communitybuilding activities.’ Similarly, Lass et al. (2001) found
that being involved in a CSA helped farmers improve
their community involvement. Abbott Cone and
Kakaliouras (1995) denote CSA as a social movement
whereby a new institutional arrangement is created
‘that addresses multiple societal needs – healthy food,
healthy land and healthy social relationships’ (p. 29).
Their research into four CSA farms in the United
States revealed that members articulated their commitment to the farms in moral terms – as part of their
moral responsibility to care for the land, communities
and food producers. Lyson (2004, 2005) argues that
civic agriculture embeds agricultural and foo