CSAs and the Battle for the Local Food Dollar

Abstract

The Community Supported Agriculture marketing model has evolved from its early roots, adapting to both increases in local food demand and consumer market engagement as well as to expanded competition for the local food dollar from a variety of other direct-to-consumer and intermediated sources. This paper explores the strategic positioning of CSAs in the changing food market and draws on descriptive summaries of observations from a recent survey of CSA managers to document specific trends in adaptations to the CSA business model. An application of the transaction versus alliance marketing framework is applied to local food distribution alternatives and opportunities for differentiation. CSA managers generally are aware of alternative channels for local food but primarily point to other CSAs and farm markets as the closest competition.