Agriculture and the food sector plays a crucial role in the preservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Moreover, it has an enormous potential to mitigate climate change if compared to other economic sectors. The development of agriculture activity has brought about relevant negative environmental impacts: overexploitation of natural resources, soil and water pollution, changes in land use, biodiversity loss and CO2 emissions, among others. Future perspectives point out that these consequences will be strengthened. On the one side, agriculture production should be increased to meet the food needs of a growing world population. On the other side, changes in food demand drive changes in agricultural production. These trends will exert further pressure on natural resources and their intensification level. In this sense, more external inputs will be applied (nutrients, agrochemicals, energy, etc.) and more polluting outputs will be produced (sub-products, organic and inorganic wastes, nitrates, etc.). The food sector is inherently linked to agriculture and offers manifold opportunities to improve its circularity by reusing resources, valorising by-products, cascading use of biomass, reducing food loss and food waste. By-products and wastes from the food industry are often used in agriculture e.g. as feedstuffs or fertilisers.
Indicators for Circular Economy in the Agri-food Sector
Sabina Failla;
2020-01-01
Abstract
Agriculture and the food sector plays a crucial role in the preservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Moreover, it has an enormous potential to mitigate climate change if compared to other economic sectors. The development of agriculture activity has brought about relevant negative environmental impacts: overexploitation of natural resources, soil and water pollution, changes in land use, biodiversity loss and CO2 emissions, among others. Future perspectives point out that these consequences will be strengthened. On the one side, agriculture production should be increased to meet the food needs of a growing world population. On the other side, changes in food demand drive changes in agricultural production. These trends will exert further pressure on natural resources and their intensification level. In this sense, more external inputs will be applied (nutrients, agrochemicals, energy, etc.) and more polluting outputs will be produced (sub-products, organic and inorganic wastes, nitrates, etc.). The food sector is inherently linked to agriculture and offers manifold opportunities to improve its circularity by reusing resources, valorising by-products, cascading use of biomass, reducing food loss and food waste. By-products and wastes from the food industry are often used in agriculture e.g. as feedstuffs or fertilisers.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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