Doctoral Dissertation Research: Evolution of Food Networks: Foodscale Connectivity, Egocentric Networks, and Social Contagion in Community-Supported Agriculture

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A variety of subscription-based agricultural organizations have developed in North America. They are collectively referred to as Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). CSA growers make a promise to provide produce to individual consumer subscribers who pay fees for CSA membership at the start of the growing season. The adoption of CSA-style strategies is often rationalized by its reported ability to restructure the producer-consumer relationships in mutually beneficial ways. For example, CSA organizations may be fostering greater viability with regards to the economic status of small farms, facilitating sustainable farming practices, and improving access to fresh food. However, the ways in which these food networks emerge, evolve, and shape existing food networks have not been characterized. Moreover, questions about the equitability of access to fresh food have arisen, suggesting that CSAs may have the propensity to shape outcomes that are in contradiction with their popular image. A better understanding of the dynamics and efficacy of CSA networks holds potential to improve food security and accessibility to food. Doctoral student Michael Nesius under the guidance of Professor Jon Stallins in the Department of Geography at Florida State University is studying the food networks in the Tallahassee, Florida metropolitan area. The objectives of this study are to explore changes in food networks associated with CSA formation in terms of connectivity to access points offering locally grown produce, to customer-oriented consumption networks, and to the specific mechanisms responsible for the detected changes. A mixed-methods approach is used to synthesize quantitative analysis with qualitative contextualization and to counterpoise hypothesis testing with fundamental description. A GIS-based, graph theoretical analysis will be employed to characterize the network connectivity of Tallahassee's local foodscape and to examine its influence on the existence of food deserts. Multidimensional scaling will validate the structural changes of egocentric food networks hypothesized to accompany CSA formation. Using a case study of a newly emerging CSA, the role of social contagion in network evolution will be assessed.The merit of this research stems from its central task of uncovering the dynamics manifest in the evolution of food networks. Network mapping will quantify the changes of food networks that have previously only been captured in a qualitative manner. This research will facilitate understanding of the role that food networks play in the achievement of desirable social outcomes. Restructuring the current centralized food system into one that comprises multiple tiers of sustainable and uncorrelated food networks could reduce network vulnerability to disruption. Having viable local food networks that coexist with large-scale supply chains can mitigate the risk associated with the propagation of food-borne disease throughout the food system and help achieve national security goals.