What is circular agriculture and why is it important?

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Highlights

  • We currently have a linear food system: extract-produce-consume-discard

  • Circular food systems focus on: changing damaging resources to stimulating ones, keeping all natural resources in the circle and reusing inevitable resource losses in the food chain

  • Circular food systems reuse all waste products

  • To become circular we need to half our current animal protein consumption

What does it mean for a food system to be circular?

Let’s first begin with understanding what a circular food system looks like, in theory. Circularity is quite a simple concept, although the same cannot be said for its implementation. It goes something like this. 

Our current agricultural system operates linearly - like our economy - as products flow through what is sometimes called the “extract-produce-consume-discard model”. A product typically passes through a supply chain on its way to the consumer, and this chain consists of separate actors that each try to gain the most economic benefit possible by using/processing raw materials at the lowest possible cost (and highest potential yield). The linear model is flawed for a variety of reasons, but much of these issues can be solved by not segregating the entire system into discrete nodes, or entities, each trying to maximize their own profit with little or no regard for the other parties.

This linear paradigm gives little incentive for each party to actually consider the system as a whole, or to even bear in mind how their decisions impact that which is beyond their own profit margins. Unsurprisingly, this system is riddled with inefficiencies, waste, and free-floating externalities. 

To put it in an oversimplified manner, circularity seeks to solve these fundamental problems by designing systems in a holistic way and thus closing the gaps in the food cycle. It means re-defining efficiency in a way that includes both economics and environmental, rather than just the former. Needless to say, it necessarily starts with the most essential part of growing food: healthy soils. This means:

  1. Searching for practices and technologies that minimize the input of finite (e.g. land, water) and destructive resources (e.g. synthetic fertilizer, antibiotics), and encourage the use of regenerative ones (e.g. manure, cover crops). 

  2. Prevent natural resources from leaking out of the food system (e.g. carbon and other nutrients)

  3. Stimulate the reuse/recycling of inevitable resource losses (e.g. human and animal waste).

Check the graph below for a visual representation of a circular food system. 

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The biophysical concept of circularity in the food system, courtesy of Hannah van Zanten (2019))


What does circular agriculture look like in practice? 

In a circular paradigm, arable land is predominantly used to grow plants that directly feed humans. When waste by-products are inevitably created along the production-consumption process (e.g. crop residues, co-products from food processing, food waste, human/animal excreta), they are reintroduced into the production process. All of these by-products contain valuable nutrients that can be used for a variety of regenerative purposes.

The main priority for these byproducts, however, is to reuse them for the purposes of making more human food. If certain by-products cannot be used for human consumption, then they can be used in order to improve the soil, fertilize crops, feed animals, etc. Naturally, crops are to be chosen based on how their main and by-products can be used in this system. 

In turn, this circular process can be designed in various ways: within a region, within the Netherlands, or even across national borders. The motto is: “do it locally if you can, and regionally or internationally if you have to.”

For a clear and more detailed explanation of how this whole process works, check out this study by van Zanten (2019). 

What role do animals play in all of this? One of the main researchers behind the Dutch transition is Hannah van Zanten, who writes:

“If we use farm animals for what they are good at - converting by-products from the food system and grass resources into valuable food and manure - they can contribute significantly to the human food supply, while at the same time reducing the environmental impact of the entire food system. By converting these so-called low-opportunity-cost feeds, farm animals recycle biomass and nutrients into the food system that would otherwise be lost to food production.”

The role of livestock in a circular food system depends on a variety of factors (e.g. the quality/quantity of grass and by-products, the type of animals being reared), and while they may certainly play an important role in soil regeneration, one thing remains clear - our consumption of animal protein has to reduce significantly. This isn’t news; experts have been telling us for years that the way we currently eat meat and other animal products is vastly unsustainable. 

Any vision of circularity in agriculture must be preceded by a significant drop in the current consumption of animal foods. One study by a Dutch researcher found that in order to optimize the use of agricultural land, the ideal daily consumption of animal protein is just 12%. Given the average daily protein requirements of humans, this amounts to a daily 7g of animal protein. Multiply this number by 10, and you’ll find the current daily animal protein consumption in the Netherlands - 74 grams.

Another study reached more lenient conclusions - “livestock raised under the circular economy concept could provide a significant, non-negligible part (9–23 g/per capita) of our daily protein needs (~50–60 g/per capita)”. Still, even in the higher-end scenarios, our consumption of animal protein should constitute no more than 30-35% of our daily protein intake. This is still under half of what we currently consume today. 

Despite claims that we should actually be eating more meat in order to save the world, the Dutch seem unconvinced by the proposals of individuals such as Allan Savory, quoting lack of scientific evidence as to the reason. 

So far for the basics of circular agriculture. In my next blog post, I will dig deep into the dutch plans to become the circular leader by 2030.

Fred Rosa - Brand Activist - LinkedIn

Fred Rosa - Brand Activist - LinkedIn

Brad VanstoneCircular