Agriculture and Human Values 18: 107–119, 2001. © 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. Gender and resource management: Community supported agriculture as caring-practice Betty L. Wells and Shelly Gradwell Department of Sociology, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA Accepted in revised form April 23, 2000 Abstract. Interviews with Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) growers in Iowa, a majority of whom are women, shed light on the relationship between gender and CSA as a system of resource management. Growers, male and female alike, are differentiated by care and caring-practices. Care-practices, historically associated with women, place priority on local context and relationships. The concern of these growers for community, nature, land, water, soil, and other resources is manifest in care-motives and care-practices. Their specific mix of motives differs: providing safe and nutritious food, educating self and others, and building relationships with other growers, shareholder-members, and the land. Care-practices include reducing or eliminating chemical usage, encouraging or accepting beneficial insects and wildlife, building soil, and creating resource management partnerships with shareholder members. CSA, viewed through a lens of care, may offer a means of transcending gender stereotypes. Key words: Agriculture, Care, Caring-Practice Community Supported Agriculture, Diversity, Gardening, Gender, Resource Management, Rural, Women Betty Wells, Professor of Sociology at Iowa State University, is a rural community development practitioner. Her research focuses on local responses to rural restructuring, especially its gendered aspects, including CSA and rural women’s activism. Shelly Gradwell is a research assistant in the Department of Sociology at Iowa State University. She conducts research on CSA and local food system development in rural Iowa. Introduction to CSA The Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) part- nership concept originated in the 1960s when Japanese women, concerned with the increase in imported food and the loss of farmers and farmland, asked local farmers to grow vegetables and fruit directly for them. The farmers agreed, on the condition that a number of families commit themselves to supporting the farmers. With this, “The teikei concept was born, which trans- lated literally means partnership, but philosophically means ‘food with the farmer’s face on it’” (Van En, 1995: 29). This model, first implemented in the United States in the mid-1980s, became known as CSA. As defined by Gradwell et al. (1999: 1), CSA is ... a partnership between farmers and community members working together to create a local food system. CSA farmers may produce fresh vegetables, fruits, meats, fiber, and related products directly for local community members. CSA differs from direct marketing in that its members commit to a full-season price in the spring, sharing the risks of production. With this up-front support, farmers can concentrate on growing quality food and caring for the land. In return, members know where their food comes from and how it is grown; they share a connection to the land and farmers who feed them. CSA establishes a direct economic and social link between farmers and community members. The number of CSAs in the United States continues to grow from an estimated 635 in 1996 (Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening Associ- ation, personal communication, 1997) to over 1,000 in 1999 (Robyn Van En Center for Community Supported Agriculture Resources, 1999, website: www.csacenter.org). CSA in Iowa To assess the current status of CSA in Iowa, we conducted a field study within the borders of Iowa, where CSA has only recently taken root. Despite a long association with agriculture and its continued