<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.6in 0pt 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has undergone both a rapid increase in growth and interest over the last decade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As such, the amount of literature on the subject has also increased.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, there are few, if any, theoretical models of demand on CSA that have been developed from membership data. This paper uses both survey and anecdotal data of members of the Roxbury Biodynamic Farm, the second largest CSA in the United States, to present a theory of demand for CSA membership. Included in the discussion is consideration of the evidence that there is a direct relationship between production method and demand, usually a shibboleth in traditional economic analysis. Further exploration considers the possibility that over time participation influences the very nature of demand for CSA membership, and hypothesizes that this dynamic demand is a necessary but insufficient condition for the sustainability of CSA.</span></span></p>
Increasing water scarcity causes a variety of pressures on agricultural production given current and growing food demands. This paper seeks to add to our understanding of water scarcity adaptations by explicitly addressing linkages between water scarcity, water productivity, cropping choices, and farm labor. We challenge the widespread claim that tightening foreign (especially Mexican) labor supply will necessarily result in less labor-intensive crop choices. Instead, by linking water scarcity and farm labor through the lens of water productivity we illustrate scenarios under which climate and technological change result in greater future labor demand in agriculture, including temporary and seasonal workers, largely due to water productivity increases resulting from switching to more labor-intensive crops. We conclude that a focus on crop choices is central to understanding changes in water productivity, labor demand, and technological innovations in response to water scarcity.
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.6in 0pt 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has undergone both a rapid increase in growth and interest over the last two decades.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As such, the amount of literature on the subject has also increased.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, there are few, if any, theoretical models of supply for CSA memberships (shares) that have been developed from CSA farm data.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This paper uses both survey and anecdotal data from the Roxbury Biodynamic Farm, one of the largest CSA in the United States, to present a theory of supply for CSA membership.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Included in the discussion is the consideration that CSA farms are not profit maximizing and that the farmers (i.e. the suppliers) knowingly take on the responsibilities and earnings associated with a CSA.</span></span></p>
This paper presents ac lassroom exercise for an introductory economics course that allows students to discover the economic and social impacts of working for minimum wages. Students are asked to estimate a budget necessary for both ad esirable and sustainable standard of living for those earning am inimum wage income. By engaging in active learning on topics such as economic justice, normative economic policy, living wages, and non-material needs, the exercise is an effective vehicle for integrating social economics into ap rinciples course; and offers an opportunity to augment traditional economic pedagogy. Extensions, variations, and as uggested assessment tool for the exercise are also provided.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2025 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.