Abstract

Community supported agriculture (CSA) is a system of selling local food directly to consumers that has more than doubled from 2004 to 2009 and continues to expand in popularity. Farmers and consumers alike are attracted to the CSA model, where customers pay up front in return for a share of the season’s harvest. This principle of shared risk and reward aligns with a growing cultural awareness of food production and the lengthy supply chains linking people to their food. Accompanying this concept of community engagement, many CSA farmers offer opportunities to work on the farm in exchange for food or provide unpaid internships to beginning farmers. These innovative “volunteer for food” relationships, however, do not neatly align with United States federal and state laws regulating employment such as minimum wage and workers' compensation. This paper analyzes the theory of community participation embedded in CSAs with the impacts of legal regimes on volunteer for food relationships. From a practice-based perspective, this research further identifies potential points of flexibility within the legal system and explores farmer opportunities and specific mechanisms to avoid potential regulatory liabilities. This article concludes with policy recommendations to eliminate inappropriate regulations that unnecessarily impact CSA expansion into additional communities.