Dear Felipe Romero-Perdomo,

A very good research topic. Unfortunately, the circular economy is still used on a too small scale in food systems, including as part of the development of sustainable organic farming operating in accordance with the principles of pro-environmental, green circular economy. In my opinion, systems for the use of food waste in sustainable organic farming, which are thrown away by people and by stores selling food products, should be developed. Waste segregation and recycling systems are being developed, but the scale of re-use of waste from food products is too small. On the other hand, the scale of the application of the circular economy in agriculture could be multiplied if the current global structure of the production of agricultural crops, of which 3/4 of the crops produced is used as feed for livestock farming, would be reversed, i.e. that min. 3/4 of the production of agricultural crops was intended for the production of food products for humans. In this way, the problem of greenhouse gas emissions (30% of greenhouse gas emissions, including a significant amount of methane on a global scale comes from livestock farming) would also be significantly reduced. The problem of hunger in many countries could also be solved in this way. Farms producing only plant crops are easier to convert to a model of sustainable organic farming, taking into account the principles of the circular economy, than livestock farms. Meat can be produced under the so-called cell agriculture based on the cultivation of cells collected from animals on the basis of biopsy. In vitro meat can be healthier because it can have less unfavorable fats, and can be enriched with Omega-3 acids, etc. In classic meat production based on meat breeding, antibiotics are used and antibiotic resistance is created. Crowded animals in farms are a breeding ground for new pathogens, new viruses that can be passed on to humans. Genetically modified yeast can produce a milk substitute for the production of e.g. cheese, ice cream. On the other hand, if someone who wants to contribute to reducing the scale of global warming turns to vegetarianism, now there are techniques for preparing meals and dishes that look and taste very similar to meat and are made from plant crops, e.g. legumes. In view of the above, farms producing plant crops as part of pro-environmental, sustainable organic farming have greater opportunities to operate in accordance with the principles of circular green economy than classical farms where organic farming is not applied and there is also livestock breeding. Therefore, in this type of sustainable farms operating in organic farming, agricultural wastes can be used to a much greater extent as, for example, compost for fertilization on arable fields. In this way, there is little organic waste and a more circular economy is realized. On the other hand, the development of a circular economy in the agri-food processing sector, trade in food products and the improvement of waste segregation, taking into account the fraction of waste from food products, can be implemented by, on the one hand, conducting social information campaigns in order to increase citizens' awareness of this issue. On the other hand, it is necessary to introduce legal regulations, thanks to which commercially operating companies and enterprises in the food production sector, commercial enterprises, large-area stores and other, as well as logistics centers would be obliged not to throw unsold food products into the trash but to transfer them to e.g. cooperatives and farm associations for the production of compost that could be used to fertilize farmland, or for companies that would use this organic waste to make additives to organic fertilizers used on farms operating in the sustainable organic farming model.

Regards,

Dariusz

When you consider the Circular Economy (CE), the most recent advance in terms of food systems is the utilization of organic resources from food byproducts, through decontamination and can safe returning to the soil in the form of organic fertilizer. These cycles regenerate living systems, such as soil, which provide renewable resources, and support biodiversity.

A circular economy is an economic system that aims to eliminate the waste and continuous use of resources through their reuse, sharing, repair, renewal, remanufacturing and recycling to create a closed loop system, which minimizes the use of resource inputs and lowers waste emissions, pollution and carbon emissions. A circular economy aims to maintain the use of products, equipment, and infrastructure for a longer period, thus improving the productivity of these resources. Therefore, to achieve the shift towards a circular economy, the element of “disposal” of resources in the linear economy equation “take, make, dispose” must be replaced with the element of “reuse” so that the equation of the circular economy becomes “take, make, reuse.”

I wish you good luck in your work

Dear researcher, you are pursuing a very good goal. However, in past, present and especially future agricultural systems, the environment faces many challenges and threats. It is important to use a model that can trap agricultural contaminants. So what is the model for using circular economics in agriculture to measure the parametric data of your research target community?

And one of your main goals in this research is renewable soil and water and the biological correlations that should be included in your goals.

We wish you success.

Thank you all very much for your responses. The literature about Circular Economy in technical cycles is abundant, while in biological cycles it is very scarce. My particular interest is in horticultural systems, as circular horticulture is a recent term, and several traditional horticultural processes are associated with circularity. Does anyone have a conference paper, gray literature, or preprint on this topic?