Community Supported Agriculture (CSA): what does the community sustain?

• Autor(a) principal: Melo, Angelina Moreira
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Freitas, Alair Ferreira de, Calbino, Daniel
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: DRd - Desenvolvimento Regional em debate
• Texto Completo: http://www.periodicos.unc.br/index.php/drd/article/view/3567

The Community Sustaining Agriculture (CSA) is an expanding worldwide phenomenon, based on the commercialization of agroecological products. Founded on principles of trust and reciprocity, the aim is to build work in a sense of community. In this context, the article aimed to understand, in the light of social representations, how CSAs organize themselves and influence the construction of communities to operationalize their actions and sustain the dynamics and principles of these experiences. Through a qualitative investigation in two organizations, the results indicated that farmers and co-producers who remained close to the work organization had a greater sense of community than those who limited themselves to buying and selling relationships. In addition, the CSA, which adopted practices in the effort to establish solidary and cooperative relationships, recorded lower turnover and economic loss, which can be concluded that the feeling of community is a relevant element for the sustainability of solidary organizations in mercantile contexts. Keywords: Social Representation. CSA. Solidarity Organizations.