Behavioral Sciences in the Study of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is an important Alternative Food Network (AFN) in which consumers financially support small family farmers, sharing the risks and benefits of food production. This type of community is governed by rules based on collective and individual principles and values that produce, as an aggregate product, food security, environmental preservation, and income for small family farmers. CSAs are a food production and consumption model that directly connects farmers and consumers and promotes family farming, the local economy, sustainable agricultural production, and pro-environmental and prosocial behavior patterns. Considering the importance of CSAs for environmental sustainability and social justice and as a way of understanding the factors that promote these behaviors, a systematic review of the literature was carried out to identify studies that investigated actions by CSA members related to pro-environmental, prosocial, or health-related concerns, with (a) psychology as a theoretical-methodological approach or (b) identifying other areas of science interested in behavioral issues related to its members. While psychology studies on the behavior patterns of CSA members are rare, this aspect arouses interest in the multidisciplinary scientific community, as it stimulates and reinforces important and specific behaviors in the context of food and the preservation of the planet.