Sustainability Assessment for Asparagus Farms that Work with a Community-Supported Agriculture Model in Turkey
Keywords:
sustainability, small farms, community-supported agriculture, asparagus farms
Abstract
Due to the diversified nature of agricultural systems, it is difficult to handle the sustainability aspects of different farming practices. With an intention to evaluate the sustainability of the com-munity-supported agriculture (CSA) model in Turkey, the current study focuses on asparagus farms and designs farm-specific sustainability indicators that would be helpful for the farmers. The framework developed for this purpose consists of 20 environmental, 8 economic, and 17 social sustainability indicators derived and adapted from an extensive literature. The indicators are then used to form survey questions to gather data directly from the farmers. The results show that these farms are sustainable in some aspects, mostly from a social sustainability perspective, and not in others. In order to be fully sustainable, they need to make alterations in some of the agricultural practices on the farm, diversify their production, measure their environmental impacts on the air, soil, and water, and most importantly define successors for their farms in order to keep asparagus production for the years to come.
References
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Schnell, S. (2007) Food with a Farmer’s Face: Community Supported Agriculture in the United States. The Geographical Review 97 (4), 550-564
Soode, E., Lampert, P., Weber-Blaschke, G., Richter, K. (2014) Carbon footprints of the horticultural products strawberries, asparagus, roses and orchids in Germany. Journal of Cleaner Production, 87, 1-12. 10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.09.035.
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Tellarini, V., Caporali F. (2000) An input/output methodology to evaluate farms as sustainable agroecosystems. An application of indicators to farms in Central Italy. Agric Ecosyst Environ, 77, 111-123
Tubene, S., Hanson, J. (2002) The wholesale produce auction: An alternative marketing strategy for small farms. American Journal of Alternative Agriculture, 17(1), 18-23
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World Bank (2020) Country Profile. Retrieved May 18, 2020 from https://data.worldbank.org/country/turkey?view=chart
Zahm, F., Viaux, P., Vilain, L., Girardin, P., Mouchet C. (2008) Assessing Farm Sustainability with the IDEA Method – from the Concept of Agriculture Sustainability to Case Studies on Farms. Sustainable Development,16, 271–281.
Black A. (2004) The quest for sustainable, healthy communities. In: Presented to Effective Sustainability Education Conference, NSW Council on Environmental Education, PP. 18–20
Bockstaller, C., Girardin, P. (2003) How to validate environmental indicators. Agricultural Systems, 76, 639–653.
Chatzinikolaou P., Manos B. (2012) Review of existing methodologies and tools for measuring sustainability in rural areas. http://www.feemproject.net/belpasso_2012/files/studpapers/Paper_Chatzinikolaou.pdf
Cone Abbott, C., Myhre, A. (2000) Community-supported agriculture: A sustainable alternative to industrial agriculture? Human Organization, 59 (2), 187-197.
Cooley J.P., Lass, D.A. (1998) Consumer benefits from community supported agricultural membership. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 20(1), 227–237.
Dahlberg, K.A. (1991) Sustainable agriculture-fad or harbinger? Bioscience, 41(5), 337-340.
DeLind, L.B. (2003) Considerably more than vegetables, a lot less than community: The dilemma of community supported agriculture. Fighting for the farm, ed. J. Adams, pp.192-206.
DeMuth, S. (2008) Community Supported Agriculture: An Annotated Bibliography and Resource Guide. DIANE Publishing.
De Olde, E.M., Oudshoorn, F.W., Sørensen, C.A.G., Bokkers, E.A.M., de Boer, I.J.M. (2016) Assessing sustainability at farm-level: Lessons learned from a comparison of tools in practice. Ecological Indicators, 66, 391-404
Diamond, J. (2005) Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive. New York and London:Viking Penguin/Allen Lane
Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) (2013) Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agri- culture Systems: Guidelines, Version 3.0. Roma, Italy: Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations; Retrieved February 28, 2020, from http://www.fao.org/3/a-i3957e.pdf
FAO (2014) The State of Food and Agriculture 2014. Retrieved April 15, 2020 from http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4040e.pdf
FAO (2020) FAO’s Work on Family Farming Retrieved April 15, 2020 from http://www.fao.org/3/CA1465EN/ca1465en.pdf
FAO (2014) Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture Systems Tool Retrieved April 15, 20202 from http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4113e.pdf
Flint Report (2015) Farm-Level Indicators for Evaluating Sustainability and Emerging New Policy Topics Retrieved March 20, 2020 from https://www.flintfp7.eu/downloads/reports/FLINT%20WP1_%20D1%204.pdf
Gaviglio, A., Pirani, A., Bertocchi, M. (2014) Development of the environmental, social and economic sustainability in the peri-urban agricultural areas: governance opportunities in the South Milan Agricultural Park. Adv Eng Forum, 11,417–423
Gaviglio, A., Bertocchi, M., Demartini, E. (2017) A Tool for the Sustainability Assessment of Farms: Selection, Adaptation and Use of Indicators for an Italian Case Study MFPI, 6, 60.
Gidatopluklari.org. Topluluk destekli tarım. Retrieved March 23, 2020 from http://gidatopluluklari.org/?page_id=96
Girardin, P., Bockstaller, C., van der Werf, H.M.G. (2000) Assessment of potential impacts of agricultural practices on the environment: The AGRO*ECO method. Environmental Impact Assessment, 20, 227-239
Gómez-Limón, J., Sanchez-Fernandez, G. (2010) Empirical evaluation of agricultural sustainability using composite indicators. Ecological Economics, 69, 1062-1075
Goodland, R. (1995) The concept of environmental sustainability. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics; 26, 1-24
Groh, T., McFadden, S.H. (1990) Farms of Tomorrow (Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association, Inc., Kimberton, PA.
Hamrin, R.D. (1983) A Renewable Resource Economy. New York: Praeger.
Hansen, J.W. (1996) Is agricultural sustainability a useful concept? Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, 50, 117-143.
Ikerd, J. (2006) Sustaining the Family Farm. Retrieved May 18, 2020 from http://web.missouri.edu/~ikerdj/papers/Lethbridge-Family%20Farms.htm
Lamb, G. (1994) Community supported agriculture. Threefold Review 11, 39-43.
Lien, G., Hardaker, J., Flaten, O. (2007) Risk and Economic Sustainability of Crop Farming Systems. Agricultural Systems, 94, 541-552.
MacMillan Uribe, A. L., Winham, D. M., Wharton, C. (2012) Community supported agriculture membership in Arizona. An exploratory study of food and sustainability behaviours. Appetite, 59(2), 431-436.
McMurray, K., Hall, K., Brain, R. (2017) Community Supported Agriculture: Participating in a Share, Utah State University Extension Sustainability 2017/05pr
Meadows, D., Meadows, D., Randers, J., Behrens, W. (1972) The Limits to Growth. New York: Universe, 205 pp
Möllers, J., & Bîrhală, B. (2014) Community supported agriculture: A promising pathway for small family farms in Eastern Europe? A case study from Romania. Landbauforschung, 64(3-4), 139-150. doi:10.3220/LBF_2014_139-150
Nehring, R., Barnard C., Banker D., and Breneman V. (2006) Urban influence on costs of production in the Corn Belt. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 88 (4), 930-946.
OECD (2001) OECD Environmental Strategy for the First Decade of the 21st Century. Paris: OECD.
Paul, M. (2016) Farmer perspectives on livelihoods within community supported agriculture, University of Massachusetts Amherst, unpublished dissertation
Schader, C., Grenz, J., Meier, MS., Stolze, M. (2014) Scope and precision of sustainability assessment approaches to food systems. Ecology and Society, 19, 42
Schnell, S. (2007) Food with a Farmer’s Face: Community Supported Agriculture in the United States. The Geographical Review 97 (4), 550-564
Soode, E., Lampert, P., Weber-Blaschke, G., Richter, K. (2014) Carbon footprints of the horticultural products strawberries, asparagus, roses and orchids in Germany. Journal of Cleaner Production, 87, 1-12. 10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.09.035.
Spohn, O.M. (2004) Sustainable development indicators within the German water industry—A Case Study carried out at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.
Tellarini, V., Caporali F. (2000) An input/output methodology to evaluate farms as sustainable agroecosystems. An application of indicators to farms in Central Italy. Agric Ecosyst Environ, 77, 111-123
Tubene, S., Hanson, J. (2002) The wholesale produce auction: An alternative marketing strategy for small farms. American Journal of Alternative Agriculture, 17(1), 18-23
TURKSTAT (2020) Values of crop and animal production, Retrieved May 18, 2020 from http://www.tuik.gov.tr/Start.do
URGENCI (2016) Retrieved February 24, 2020 from http://urgenci.net/csa-history/
Valtýniová, S., Křen, J. (2011) Indicators used for Assessment of the Ecological Dimension of Sustainable Arable Farming – Review. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis Volume LIX 33 Number 3
Watson, D.J. (2019) Working the fields: The organization of labour in community supported agriculture. Organization, 27(2), 291–313.
World Bank (2020) Country Profile. Retrieved May 18, 2020 from https://data.worldbank.org/country/turkey?view=chart
Zahm, F., Viaux, P., Vilain, L., Girardin, P., Mouchet C. (2008) Assessing Farm Sustainability with the IDEA Method – from the Concept of Agriculture Sustainability to Case Studies on Farms. Sustainable Development,16, 271–281.
Published
2022-07-25
How to Cite
Acar, S., & Özden, B. (2022). Sustainability Assessment for Asparagus Farms that Work with a Community-Supported Agriculture Model in Turkey. Future of Food: Journal on Food, Agriculture and Society, 10(3). Retrieved from https://www.thefutureoffoodjournal.com/index.php/FOFJ/article/view/535
Section
Research Articles
