Exploring member trust in German community-supported agriculture: a multiple regression analysis.

Autor: Zoll F; Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Eberswalder Str. 84, 15374 Müncheberg, Germany., Kirby CK; Michigan State University, 354 Farm Ln, East Lansing, MI 48824 USA., Specht K; ILS - Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development, Brüderweg 22-24, 44135 Dortmund, Germany., Siebert R; Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Eberswalder Str. 84, 15374 Müncheberg, Germany.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Agriculture and human values [Agric Human Values] 2023; Vol. 40 (2), pp. 709-724. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Nov 07.
DOI: 10.1007/s10460-022-10386-3
Abstrakt: Opaque value chains as well as environmental, ethical and health issues and food scandals are decreasing consumer trust in conventional agriculture and the dominant food system. As a result, critical consumers are increasingly turning to community-supported agriculture (CSA) to reconnect with producers and food. CSA is often perceived as a more sustainable, localized mode of food production, providing transparent production or social interaction between consumers and producers. This enables consumers to observe where their food is coming from, which means CSA is considered suitable for building trust in food (production). However, it remains unclear how exactly members' trust in 'their' farmers is built. To determine the factors that predict members' trust in CSA and its farmers, and the importance of these factors when compared to each other, we conducted a quantitative study among CSA members in Germany and applied a multiple regression model ( n  = 790). The analysis revealed that trust in CSA and its farmers is influenced by "reputation", "supply of information", "direct social interaction" and the "duration of CSA membership". Other factors such as the "certification status of the CSA farm" and "attitudes toward organic certification" did not significantly predict trust. We conclude that producers' willingness to be transparent already signals trustworthiness to CSA members and is more important to members than formal signals. Other actors within the food system could learn from CSA principles and foster a transition toward a more regionalized value-based food system to help restore agriculture's integrity.
Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10460-022-10386-3.
Competing Interests: Conflict of interestThe authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.
(© The Author(s) 2022.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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