OVERVIEW ON COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE IN EUROPE
The overview on Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in Europe is published!
It was released from the European CSA Research Group (http://urgenci.net/the-csa-research-group/). From over 20 countries participants of the interface agriculture/ research/ social movements came together to a meeting organised by the Agronauts in the Black Forest. As a result, they laid the foundation for a survey and a research, which is published now. This paper demonstrates the shift of CSA from a niche to a movement, which generates food for half a million up to a million people (depends on the interpretation and definition of the different countries).
This shows: a fair and solidary economy is not a utopia but reality in Europe! A diverse group of farmers, „prosumers“ and „cooperative participants“, citizens started to move in the direction of food sovereignty and agricultural ecology. The idea is not new but for many people the time has come to assume responsibility for themselves, generations to come and for our environment. The great thing is, that the quality of food and live increases!
Most contributions as well as the graphical design is done by members of CSA projects- in this case from the GartenCoop, Freiburg.
The prefaces are from Elizabeth Henderson (author of the probably most well-known book about CSA “Sharing the Harvest” and honorary president of Urgenci), Trauger Groh (a pioneer of the CSA movement) and professor Michel Pimbert (Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience at Coventry University).
The opening chapter introduces the concept of Community Supported Agriculture, summarise the development and current state of affairs of this approach in Europe and points outs further perspectives.
The main part of the report presents the current status of CSA in all parts of Europe through 22 country specific reports.
The final chapter allows insights in the results of the European survey on 500 CSA projects.
The report is in English language and can be downloaded as pdf (link is below). Hopefully a printed version will follow soon.
Overview of Community Supported Agriculture in Europe final
