Circular Agrifood
What is Circular Agrifood?
Circular agrifood is a process of producing food, where there is a closed-loop system that optimises the use of resources and reduces waste. It involves reusing or recycling materials throughout the food production cycle. The approach focuses on sustainable agriculture, waste reduction, and circular economy principles in the production and consumption of food.
Worldwide one third of food produced every year (1.3 billion tonnes) is lost or wasted. Food waste has a global carbon footprint of about 8% of all global greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans.
Waste occurs along the entire supply chain from farms to processing and manufacturing to shops, restaurants and at home. The first step is nearly always reduction, the smaller the waste streams the better. Next, new technologies, markets and collaborations can help farmers, producers, and retailers find innovative ways to repurpose their waste streams.
Increasingly, small scale operations seeking to repurpose waste streams have been cropping up. This offers encouragement that circular agrifood business models are gaining traction. However, the scale is still quite small, and many barriers exist. In particular, the high implementation costs are too much for individual stakeholders to bare alone. Although awareness for waste stream upcycling is growing, it remains uncharted territory resulting in general uncertainty and lack of commitment on the way forward. Also, conservative markets with traditional supply chains are unwilling to alter established, highly profitable methods based on cheap, though often unsustainable, raw resources. Foodvalley NL is currently exploring ways to accelerate the uptake of waste streams in food production.
“We are at a starting point of a practice journey to a circular agrifood economy where regenerative sourcing, upcycling of sidestreams and using insects as upcyclers are elements that support this system. Come and innovate with us!”
Regenerative Agriculture
Regenerative agriculture is an integrative farming approach that aims to restore and enhance the health of ecosystems and agricultural systems. It goes beyond sustainable farming practices by actively working to improve soil health, increase biodiversity and promote resilience to environmental challenges. Regenerative agricultural practices include, amongst others, minimised tillage, cover crops and the use of perennials.
Get in touch! Karin Slobbe-Visser, Programme Manager Regenerative Agriculture.
Upcycling
Food Upcycling is all about creating optimal value out of food losses and byproducts. While preventing food losses is the preferred option, upcycling them into food or feed is the next best solution from a resource valorisation perspective.
Get in touch! Caroline Duivenvoorden, Programme Manager Circular Agrifood.
FAQ Circular Agrifood
What is regenerative agriculture?
Regenerative agriculture is an integral approach to farming that uses soil conservation as the basis for strengthening the wider farming ecosystem. It aims to improve soil health, increase biodiversity, enhance water systems and support ecosystem services, while sustaining the socio-economic viability of farms. It is not defined by one fixed set of practices. Instead, regenerative agriculture is a transition path towards working with nature rather than against it. The practices used are context-specific and can differ from farm to farm and region to region. Examples include cover crops, crop rotation, reduced soil disturbance, increasing biodiversity, reducing reliance on synthetic inputs, attracting natural pest predators and integrating livestock.
What is agritech?
Agritech is the application of technology to improve all elements of the farming and growing process.
What is upcycling?
Upcycling is reuse material in such a way as to create a product of higher quality or value than the original.
What is an example of upcycling?
Upcycling is the process of reusing old materials, but it creates something more valuable or of a higher quality. Examples of upcycling include using brewer’s spent grain as an ingredient for bread s to make new shoes or reclaimed wood to make quality furniture.