From Vegetable Box to Seafood Cooler: Applying the Community-Supported Agriculture Model to Fisheries

Community-supported fisheries (CSF) projects show signs of rapid growth. Modeled on community-supported agriculture (CSA) projects, CSFs share objectives of reducing social and physical distance between consumers and producers and re-embedding food systems in social and environmental contexts. This article offers a comparison of CSF and CSA, situated in the differences between seafood and agricultural products, and fishing and farming. We draw on economic and resource theory, past research on CSA, and a member survey from a case study CSF. Survey results show CSF members are interested in accessing high-quality, fresh, local seafood, and in supporting fishing communities, and they believe that participating in a CSF achieves both. They are less certain that a CSF can address environmental concerns, and few identify environmental motives as their primary reason for participating. The latter contrasts with CSA research results, and we contextualize these findings in our broader comparison. Keywords: alternative food systemscommon pool resourcescommunity-supported fisheries Acknowledgments Thanks to Walking Fish organizers Nick Mallos, Alexis Ramirez, Kim Gordon, and Jen Bruce for their contributions to the survey, and we are grateful to Walking Fish members who completed it. Notes Note. Pairwise comparison using Fisher's exact test shows response distributions to community potential questions 1, 2, and 4 were significantly different from response distributions to environmental potential questions 6 and 7.