'What we'd like is a CSA in every town.' Scaling community supported agriculture across the UK.

As the Covid-19 pandemic exposes the vulnerabilities of our globalised agri-food system, local sustainable food alternatives, such as community-supported agriculture (CSA), are on the rise. In CSA local farmers and households co-produce food sustainably and independently of the market. CSA's benefits and shortcomings are well-understood but we know little about how larger CSA networks can expand and consolidate the practice at scale. This paper investigates the UK CSA network, showing its ability to upscale, outscale and downscale CSA through institutionalisation, replication and politicization, before discussing the network's strategic limitations and dependencies. • The pandemic has fuelled interest in community supported agriculture (CSA) in the UK. • CSA networks engage not just in business exchange but political activism and advocacy. • CSA can be scaled up, out and down via institutionalisation, diffusion and education. • The UK CSA network has greatly expanded in size and tactical scope in the past year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]