Exploring member trust in German community-supported agriculture: a multiple regression analysis

Opaque value chains as well as environmental, ethical and health issues and food scandals are decreasing consumer trust in conventional agriculture and the dominant food system. As a result, critical consumers are increasingly turning to community-supported agriculture (CSA) to reconnect with producers and food. CSA is often perceived as a more sustainable, localized mode of food production, providing transparent production or social interaction between consumers and producers. This enables consumers to observe where their food is coming from, which means CSA is considered suitable for building trust in food (production). However, it remains unclear how exactly members' trust in 'their' farmers is built. To determine the factors that predict members' trust in CSA and its farmers, and the importance of these factors when compared to each other, we conducted a quantitative study among CSA members in Germany and applied a multiple regression model (n = 790). The analysis revealed that trust in CSA and its farmers is influenced by "reputation", "supply of information", "direct social interaction" and the "duration of CSA membership". Other factors such as the "certification status of the CSA farm" and "attitudes toward organic certification" did not significantly predict trust. We conclude that producers' willingness to be transparent already signals trustworthiness to CSA members and is more important to members than formal signals. Other actors within the food system could learn from CSA principles and foster a transition toward a more regionalized value-based food system to help restore agriculture's integrity.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10460-022-10386-3.

Transport and Retention of Phytophthora capsici Zoospores in Saturated Porous Media

Phytophthora capsici is an important plant pathogen capable of infecting several major vegetable crops. Water-induced P. capsici transport is considered to be a significant contributor to disease outbreaks and subsequent crop loss. However, little is known about factors controlling P. capsici zoospore transport in porous media, thus impeding our understanding of their environmental dispersal and development of filtration techniques for contaminated irrigation water. This study investigated the transport and retention of P. capsici zoospores in saturated columns packed with iron-oxide-coated sand (IOCS) or uncoated sand in Na(+) or Ca(2+) background solution at pH 7.7 ± 0.5 or 4.0 ± 0.3, in combination with XDLVO interaction energy calculations and microscopic visualizations. Significantly more encysted zoospores were retained in IOCS than in uncoated sand, and at pH 4.0 than at pH 7.7, which likely resulted from increased electrostatic attraction between zoospores and grain surface. At pH 7.7, up to 99% and 96% of the encysted zoospores were removed in IOCS and uncoated sand, respectively, due to a combination of strong surface attachment, pore straining, and adhesive interactions. Motile biflagellate zoospores were more readily transported than encysted zoospores, thus posing a greater dispersal and infection risk. This study has broad implications in environmental transport of Phytophthora zoospores in natural soils as well as in cost-effective engineered filtration systems.