The Diversity of Organic Box Schemes in Europe—An Exploratory Study in Four Countries
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Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, 1010 Vienna, Austria
2
Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Royal Institute of Technolgy – KTH, 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
The authors declare that they have both equally contributed to the article (equally contributing authors).
Sustainability 2020, 12(7), 2734; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12072734
Received: 18 February 2020
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Revised: 27 March 2020
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Accepted: 30 March 2020
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Published: 31 March 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Organic Agriculture and Food Systems)
Box schemes provide an opportunity to scale up local organic food systems by aggregating products from multiple producers and efficiently delivering them to consumers. However, there is limited knowledge about the overall organic box scheme landscape and how it develops. This article explores organic box schemes in four European countries and thus contributes by comparing box schemes of different sizes in different geographical and organisational contexts. Survey results from 44 box schemes were used to analyse box schemes in relation to size and growth, organisation, communication with customers, delivery modes, distances travelled by produce and boxes, and values adhered to. Although the surveyed box schemes differed in size and organisation, similarities between box schemes were found in many aspects. For example, most surveyed box schemes had grown considerably since their start, and wished to grow further, and they all rated certain values as important. A tendency for larger box schemes to offer more imported produce, to have operated for a longer time, and to use social media for advertising more often was found. Despite the heterogeneity of the box schemes in the survey, we conclude that box schemes are a useful category to explore in the sustainability transition of food systems.
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Keywords:
organic box schemes; local food systems; community supported agriculture (CSA); food hubs; survey
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MDPI and ACS Style
Kummer, S.; Milestad, R. The Diversity of Organic Box Schemes in Europe—An Exploratory Study in Four Countries. Sustainability 2020, 12, 2734. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12072734
AMA Style
Kummer S, Milestad R. The Diversity of Organic Box Schemes in Europe—An Exploratory Study in Four Countries. Sustainability. 2020; 12(7):2734. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12072734
Chicago/Turabian StyleKummer, Susanne, and Rebecka Milestad. 2020. "The Diversity of Organic Box Schemes in Europe—An Exploratory Study in Four Countries" Sustainability 12, no. 7: 2734. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12072734
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