An economic perspective of the circular bioeconomy in the food and agricultural sector

Transforming the agri-food system from a “take-make-waste”, or linear production system, to a circular bioeconomy that reduces, recycles, recovers, reuses, and regenerates wastes and transitions from fossil to biobased fuels and products is being hailed as critical for meeting a growing population’s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Communications earth & environment 2024-10, Vol.5 (1), p.507-9, Article 507
Main Authors: Khanna, Madhu, Zilberman, David, Hochman, Gal, Basso, Bruno
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
704/844
704/844/843
706/689/680
Agribusiness
Agricultural economics
Agricultural industry
Agricultural production
Agricultural wastes
Circularity
Cost benefit analysis
Decision making
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Environment
Environmental economics
Environmental social sciences
Food
Fossil fuels
Interdisciplinary studies
Market economies
Perspective
Private sector
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Summary:Transforming the agri-food system from a “take-make-waste”, or linear production system, to a circular bioeconomy that reduces, recycles, recovers, reuses, and regenerates wastes and transitions from fossil to biobased fuels and products is being hailed as critical for meeting a growing population’s food and fuel needs in environmentally sustainable ways. While a transformation towards a circular bioeconomy is an appealing strategy to achieve multiple environmental goals, we argue that this strategy needs to go beyond a techno-centric focus and adopt an economic value-based lens to balance the desire for circularity with its costs, benefits, and distributional effects on society. This perspective analyzes the mechanisms that sustain the existing linear economy and proposes a novel social cost-benefit framework to determine the optimal level and path to circularity. We present five critical pathways to achieve a sustainable circular bioeconomy in a market economy consisting of decentralized decision-makers. The transition of food and agriculture sectors to a circular bioeconomy needs to consider an economic view, which helps to identify strategies that balance social and private sector objectives and environmental benefits according to a social cost-benefit framework.
ISSN:2662-4435
2662-4435
DOI:10.1038/s43247-024-01663-6