Background: There is a growing amount of research interest to understand the role of food in well-being. The demand for community supported agriculture (CSA), bringing people spatially, economically, and socially closer to food, is continuously expanding. CSAs play an important role in both sustainable agriculture practices and influencing consumers’ food-related practices, but yet have received little attention in well-being research. Methods: This study explores food-related well-being among CSA members by using an exploratory, qualitative research design and a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews. Results: The findings stress the relevance of psychological, social, and spiritual aspects of food-related well-being beyond the nutritional characteristics of food in CSA. Conclusion: The role of sustainable agriculture in contributing to food-related well-being becomes particularly evident based on consumers’ experiences. These results are important in convincing people that their food-related experiences belong to their perceived well-being as well as stimulating people to elevate their multidimensional expectations in relation to food.

Purpose: While many characteristics of food consumption have been examined, little attention has been given to the health potential of consuming from local food communities. Local food communities, including community supported agriculture (CSA) are food initiatives, which try to respond to the healthy food, environmental or socioeconomic challenges of the food system. As a step toward understanding local food communities, this study sets out to examine the health-related adaptivity and self-management practices of CSA participation.Design/methodology/approach: The qualitative research approach, which included semi-structured interviews (n = 35), was designed to discover the potential for being healthy: the ability to adapt and to self-manage among CSA participants. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis.Findings: The results suggest that local food communities can influence health-related adaptivity and self-management in the following themes: awareness of product origins; enhanced food-management capability; expanding applicability and usability of the food environment; and strengthening one's food-related self-image.Practical implications: Increasing the presence of local food communities might be part of developing strategies to evaluate the health effects of the local food environment and to encourage consumers to take responsibility for their own health.Originality/value: This study extends the food consumption literature to include new knowledge about how local food communities facilitate individual efforts to enhance their own potential for health as well as improving understanding of the mechanisms that underpin a healthy diet.

Fresh vegetables originating from alternative food networks (AFNs) are an increasingly popular choice all over the world. Being part of an AFN frequently redefines consumption and participation of family members in food‐related activities. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a type of AFN, providing increased access to produce in a form of risk‐sharing model between farmers and consumers, which at the same time influences organization of household resources. Thus, not only the given member of a CSA, but also his/her spousal activities in household processes should be taken in account. It is clear that entering into CSA significantly affects lifestyles and frequently requires a great deal of adaptation, possibly leading to a crisis of whether to stay within the CSA or cease membership. The objective of this study was to reveal how spouses influence CSA membership. Using an explorative design, this study has identified three emerging patterns of spousal influence: coherent, integrative and neutral/antagonistic. The spousal influence on CSA membership may represent partner activities regarding food issues but also has an effect on food preparation and culinary choices at home. Our findings suggest that membership in CSA presents challenges and thus spousal support is crucial in the long term. As a consequence, spousal influence should be examined in relation to CSA participation. Inconveniences associated with CSA membership could be avoided by providing more information about the importance of spousal support.

Background: The literature suggests that farmers’ work involves a number of operational difficulties. Although alternative food networks address the majority of their problems, they can potentially generate new hardships. The aim of this study is to examine the situational and engagement-related work difficulties associated with the everyday world of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farmers. Methods: This study used the health psychology approach, namely interpretive phenomenology, to understand the social determinants of farmers’ working lives in CSA and to explore mental health challenges within the practices of local sustainable farming. To collect data, semi-structured, in-person interviews were conducted with CSA farmers in Hungary. Results: Our study shows that new modes of consumer-producer connectivity create novel situations and issues which farmers are forced to address. Three personal experiential themes emerge from the data to describe CSA farmers’ work difficulties: (1) Conflicted autonomy; (2) The pressure of boxes; (3) Social overload. The difficulties for CSA farmers seem to be rooted in the economic characteristics of alternative agriculture where farmers organize food production for the satisfaction of consumer needs. In addition, structural conditions require several different CSA farmer roles, which could even be conflicting. Conclusion: This study provides participants’ perspectives on the health and wellbeing costs of sustainable farming. Newer producer-consumer connections require both time and experience and involve extra effort or skills, but farmers often lack these abilities. The results show how perceptions of work processes relate to the general framework of CSA, which necessitates a distinct strategy for farm management.

A közösség által támogatott mezőgazdálkodás (CSA) gyorsan növekvő jelenség világszerte, a helyi élelmiszer termelésének és elosztásának az a módja, amikor a termelő és a fogyasztók (tagok) közvetlenül elköteleződnek egymás felé. A közösségi mezőgazdálkodási rendszerek, mint alulról jövő társadalmi kezdeményezések, az élelmiszerek „árutlanítása" felé tett törekvésként is értelmezhetők, és szorosan kapcsolódnak a fenntarthatóság kérdésköréhez, mely a pszichológiai és az egészségfejlesztési diskurzusba hazánkban még alig került be. A szakirodalmak kiválasztása során először konkrét szókombinációk mentén kerestünk cikkeket, majd a talált cikkek irodalmi hivatkozásait áttanulmányoztuk; illetve szakirodalom-kereső portálok elsődlegesen talált cikkeihez ajánlott további cikkeit tekintettük át a CSA-részvétellel járó tapasztalatok szempontjából. Áttekintésünk alapján látható, hogy a részvétel nemcsak konkrét előnyök mentén értelmezhető, hanem a további aspektusok, mint Hasonló gondolkodás, Lokalitás (város-vidék tengely), Személyes törődés, Életmódváltás, valamint az Újraírt sémák taglalása is legalább olyan fontos. Véleményünk szerint a CSA-ban való részvétel átgondolása hasznos információkat nyújthat többek között a fenntartható pozitív mentális egészség fogalmának kibontásában. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a rapidly growing phenomenon worldwide, a model of production and distribution of local food that connects the producer and consumers (members) directly. As a grassroot initiative, CSAs can be seen as a step towards the decommodification of food and are directly associated with sustainability which is rarely involved in psychological and health promotional discourse in Hungary. In the selection process of literature, at first papers containing specific word combinations were selected. Articles recommended by academic literature search portals during this process and references section of the selected papers were studied further in the context CSA involvement to find more relevant articles. Based on our review it seems that CSA participation can be interpreted not only through factual advantages: Similar Thinking, Locality: urban-rural axis, Personal Care, Lifestyle Change, and Rewriting of Schemes are at least as important. According to our view, studying participation in CSA may yield useful information for developing the concept of sustainable positive mental health.