Summary
This empirical study applied a holistic agroecological assessment framework (TAPE) to 24 Community Supported Agriculture farms in Flanders, Belgium, demonstrating that CSA systems perform as advanced agroecological operations with strong multidimensional sustainability across environmental, social and economic dimensions. Notably, the farms exhibited positive outcomes in soil health, ecological pest management and dietary diversity, alongside acceptable economic metrics. However, the findings highlight animal integration and labour dependence as critical constraints limiting broader agroecological transition potential and sustainability scaling.
UK applicability
The findings are likely relevant to UK CSA systems, which operate under comparable temperate climatic and regulatory conditions to Flanders. However, differences in farm scale, market structure, policy support and labour availability between UK and Belgian contexts may influence the generalisability of these results to UK practice.
Key measures
TAPE framework assessment covering soil health, natural vegetation presence, pollinator abundance, ecological pest and disease management, dietary diversity, gross value, added value, net revenue, animal integration, and labour dependence
Outcomes reported
The study applied the TAPE (Tool for Agroecology Performance Evaluation) framework to assess 24 CSA farms across environmental, social and economic sustainability dimensions. It characterised CSA farms as advanced agroecological systems and identified their multidimensional sustainability performance across soil health, natural vegetation, pollinators, ecological pest management, dietary diversity and profitability metrics.
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