1. From Global and
Linear to Local and
Circular
Changing The Way We
Think About Food Systems
Presented 7/26/16
University of St. Thomas
2. How Do We Feed The World?
This was the question that experts in
government, NGOs, and particularly the large-
scale food industry started asking, in 2008
Food prices rose tremendously around the
globe in 2008
US prices increase about 2-3% year (USDA)
Increasing global population expected to be 9.3
bn by 2050
3. Traditional/Mainstream Approach
Large industrial farms with increased
production
More monocrop farms
Fossil fuel based production
The issue of reducing hunger and malnutrition
is much more complicated than simply
producing more food
4. A Better Approach?
A new focus on smaller scale, local/regional
food production
Public/private investment in small farmers that
focus on building a local food economy rather
than concentrating on large scale exporting
A focus on reducing food waste/food spoilage
5. A Completely Different Way of
Thinking
From top-down to bottom-up and grass roots
From few-to-many Many-to-many
Reduction of waste by moving from a linear
system to a circular, closed loop system
6. Some Approaches for Reducing
Waste
From Jurgilevich et al, “Transition towards Circular Economy in the
Food System”, Sustainability 2016, 8, 69
Close material loops at every stage possible
Support local energy production using manure from farms as
local energy source or composting of bio-waste to produce gas locally
- Revise food standards (“ugly” food is not waste!)
- Support businesses which apply such practices as industrial symbiosis, re-furbishing,
re-manufacturing, work in cascades, etc.(through tax incentives or other economic
instruments)
- Remove legal barriers at the institutional level in order to ease the redistribution of
unclaimed food
- Support consumers’ sustainable choices in packaging deposit-and-refund schemes
and recycling
7. Challenges in Localizing Food
Economies
Logistics
Connecting small farmers to their markets
Farmers markets help direct to consumer sales
but what about wholesale market development?
Growing demand
Most farmers are small scale producers
How do they meet the demand for wholesale
markets?
8. New Opportunities for Social
Entrepreneurs
This new approach to feeding the world u by
using smaller scale, bottom-up approaches
presents many opportunities for budding
social entrepreneurs
A number of mission-driven, for-profit
companies have formed to solve some of the
challenges of building local food economies.
10. What Social Enterprises Can You
Build?
Think about the challenges of providing
healthy local food that supports farmers and
contributes to building the local/regional
economy.
What are some social enterprises that you
can start yourself or that you have ideas for
building?
