Developping a Concept of the International Community Supported Agriculture in order to foster Sustainability in Global Food Systems

Summary

This thesis examines the potentials of transferring principles and practices of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) to the global scale to foster sustainability in global food systems. The aim of this research is to develop a framework of International Community Supported Agriculture (ICSA) and to identify potentials of such a framework regarding a sustainable development of global food systems. The foundation for this is the development of a landscape of unsustainability in global food systems. Containing different features, it is thereby giving an overview on the current and unsustainable state of global food systems. Four approaches are presented that address sustainability in food systems: CSA, Fairtrade, crowd-based and direct-trade approaches (combining Teekampagne and Crowdfarming), and Teikei Coffee. These are assessed regarding their potentials, challenges, and limitations to address unsustainability in global food systems. Basis of this assessment is a thorough literature analysis and an interview with an expert from Teikei Coffee. Key potentials are identified and brought linked to the features of unsustainability, which are then picked up within the framing of ICSA. The result is a framework which shows potentials to address all features of unsustainability, as have been identified in this thesis. The framework of ICSA and the landscape of unsustainability may be relevant for further research and for practitioners with the interest to foster a sustainable development of global food systems.