Spring 2022: Circular economies in agriculture

The development of circular economies is imperative in the path towards a more sustainable future. Agricultural economies – like many other economic sectors – still operate largely in a linear mode, particularly when only parts of agricultural value chains are considered. For example, most farm businesses purchase inputs such as fertiliser and pesticides and sell outputs such as grain and animals. The flow of resources occurs primarily in one direction.
Circular economies aim to ‘close the loop’ on extractive production systems, with key principles being reuse, recycle, and eliminate (or limit) waste and pollution. In agriculture this translates to minimising demands on external inputs, closing nutrient loops, reducing the environmental impact from discharges and runoff and reusing waste as by-products or inputs. To be sustainable, agricultural businesses have an imperative to operate in this way, yet many practical and systemic barriers to implementing circular economies in agriculture remain entrenched.
This edition of the Farm Policy Journal investigates how circular economies can be implemented in agriculture. What are the upsides, barriers, and how different would agricultural value chains look if circular approaches were more widely adopted?