Agroecology prosumption: The role of CSA networks

Abstract

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) promotes local and fairer food consumption, based on social innovation. CSAs also become active nodes for agroecology prosumption as a tool for socio-economic transformation, but have limitations in terms of their sustainability. The tools provided by the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) and the adoption of digital platforms can be a valuable instrument to counter these limitations. This research focuses on identifying which CSA models have greater prosumer potential, and what role Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) play in this challenge. The study focuses on the analysis of the agroecological network generated by the 56 CSAs in the city of Barcelona, and their 177 providers. The results show that professionalized CSA’s with better ICT adoption and constituted as agroecology platform cooperatives, have a greater impact and an increased potential for promoting a food consumption model based on agroecology.