A modified choice experiment to examine willingness to participate in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program among low-income parents

Abstract

There is a need to improve geographical and financial access to healthy foods for limited resource populations in rural areas. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs can improve access to healthy foods in rural and limited-resource populations. However, research is needed to discern the most appealing conditions for a CSA (e.g. price, frequency, food quantity) among rural, low-income customers. The goal of this study was to understand low-income consumers' preferences related to participation in a CSA program, considering price, frequency, food quantity and accessibility (e.g. distance) conditions. A modified exploratory choice experiment exercise was embedded within in-depth interviews to examine willingness to participate in CSA under a variety of conditions among 42 low-income adults with at least one child in the household in North Carolina, New York, Vermont and Washington. Willingness to participate in a CSA under each condition was summed and compared across conditions. Results were stratified by race, number of children and household members and McNemar's test and Student's t-test were used to examine differences in willingness between conditions. Salient quotes were extracted to support themes related to each condition. Our analysis suggests that the ideal CSA would be a full-sized share of eight to nine items of mixed variety, distributed every other week, priced at less than US$15, no more than 10 min further than the supermarket (SM) from their home and preferably less expensive but no more than 20% more expensive than SM prices. CSAs interested in reaching rural low-income populations may benefit from considering these consumer-level preferences.

Gaining and Maintaining a Competitive Edge: Evidence from CSA Members and Farmers on Local Food Marketing Strategies

“…Our study was not designed to ascertain how these factors might influence participation among prospective and former CSA members, but this is an important area of inquiry. Prior studies have found that CSA price is a key factor for participation [16,25,33,47], particularly for lower income households [28,45]. However, competing on price may not be practical, considering the low profit margins in CSA [14,15,20].…”

“…We also asked participants to select preferred produce items from a list of 32 vegetables and fruits typically produced in the study regions, and to report the quantities they desired. Further detail on the scenarios (as used with a different population) is available elsewhere [45].…”

Community Supported Agriculture Farmers’ Perceptions of Management Benefits and Drawbacks

“…This is the case in the United States (US), where the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Electronic Benefit Transfer (SNAP/EBT) provides economic support by making local food more affordable. Healthy food accessibility for low-income population was analyzed in various past studies, focusing on retailing [31][32][33] and on CSA [20,[34][35][36][37][38][39]. Although studies on retailing mostly explore food economic affordability and physical accessibility to healthy food, research on alternative food networks highlight the importance of the social, community, and networking aspects of consumers' approach to healthy food.…”

“…Recruiting CSA members [6,7,18,29,38,39,44,57,62,82,84] Communicating with CSA members [17,64,75] Communicating easily with all members [75] Environmental drawbacks Farm management caused by the weather [58] Farm management caused by pests and diseases [26,58] Farm management due to weed control [26] Difficulties in growing product without chemical pesticide and herbicide [26] Table A2. The US versus HU farmers' characteristics (Chi-square analysis).…”

Spatial Considerations for Implementing Two Direct-to-Consumer Food Models in Two States

“…Selecting consumer-friendly hours of operation and pickup locations facilitates motivation to purchase from DTC venues [10]. For example, a recent modified choice experiment found that low-income consumers would be less interested in trying a CSA if the distance from their home to the pickup site was about the same as the distance to supermarket, unless the CSA offered significant cost savings [23]. Yet if the pickup site is too far from the farm, or outside established delivery routes, extra driving time and fuel costs cut into farmer profit [14].…”