Doing community supported agriculture: Tactile space, affect and effects of membership

• Published in: Geoforum 2012-03, Vol.43 (2), p.332-341
• Main Authors: Hayden, Jennifer, Buck, Daniel
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Affect; Affectivity; Agricultural production; Agriculture; Alternative food network; America; Bgi / Prodig; Community participation; Community supported agriculture; Consumer; Consumer behaviour; Consumers; Cooking; Environment; Ethics; Farm work; Farmers; Food; Geopolitics; Human geography; Local communities; Local food; Membership; Networks; Non-representational theory; Supermarkets; Sustainable agriculture; Tactile space; United States of America
• ISSN: 0016-7185; 1872-9398
• DOI: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2011.08.003

► We describe the processes and practices that constitute CSA membership. ► We find that both negative and positive affective states are generated. ► Membership fosters mediated and non-representational ways of knowing. ► The effects of membership include environmental consciousness raising and holism. Community supported agriculture (CSA) is a direct-marketing food network that has the potential to decommmodify food and support farmers while providing consumers with sustainably raised, seasonal, local food. Through an ethnographic exploration of one CSA, we describe the processes, practices, affect and effects of consumer membership within the context of non-representational theory. Carolan (2007) suggests that when non-representational ways of knowing are fostered through long-term embodied involvement in “tactile space,” “deep commitments” to the environment and others are encouraged. This study augments understandings of tactile space. Findings show that members engage in the tactile spaces of CSA (e.g. attending distribution, cooking more), but with varied effects: leading one member to voice compassion for the farmer which “is something you don’t feel in a supermarket” while another admits feeling “like I’ve been conned.” In spite of mixed experiences and affects, on balance we conclude that CSA membership does affect environmental ethics.