Measuring community power
Participation in community farming and gardening increases and improves social support, collective agency, care, and resistance in many historically exploited communities. Black- and Brown-led food justice organizations have expressed the need for an instrument that captures what is most important...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Lyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food Systems
2025-04-01
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| Series: | Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://foodsystemsjournal.org/index.php/fsj/article/view/1363 |
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| Summary: | Participation in community farming and gardening increases and improves social support, collective agency, care, and resistance in many historically exploited communities. Black- and Brown-led food justice organizations have expressed the need for an instrument that captures what is most important to them: information on how their programs impact land-based knowledge, spirituality, collective agency, resistance, and mental health. This study used a survey instrument to develop a scale using exploratory factor analysis. Participants were recruited with the help of key partners and influencers from U.S.-based agricultural networks. The final analyzable sample contained 363 respondents. The scree plot, parallel test, and eigenvalues all supported a five-factor structure as most appropriate for the data. These five inter-related factors explain a concept called “Agricultural Community Power” and refer to Collective Self-determination, BodyMind Community Care, Land-based Spiritual Wellbeing, Embodied Earth Care and Connection, and Ubuntu/Interdependence. This model had adequate internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.93). The Agriculture Community Power Scale (AgCPS) is a tool that (1) can be used for program evaluation and (2) is better aligned with the values, priorities, and impacts of many community-rooted environmental organizations. AgCPS moves food justice evaluation away from standard metrics (such as BMI and fruit and vegetable consumption) and toward metrics of community care, collective agency, land-based spirituality, and community power.
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| ISSN: | 2152-0801 |