Introducing a Degrowth Approach to the Circular Economy Policies of Food Production, and Food Loss and Waste Management: Towards a Circular Bioeconomy

Daniel Hoehn,Ian Vázquez-Rowe,Laura Batlle-Bayer,María Margallo,Ainoa Quiñones,Francisco José Amo-Setién,Israel Ruiz-Salmón,Alba Bala,Rubén Aldaco,Rebeca Abajas-Bustillo,Carmen Sarabia,Jara Laso,Pere Fullana-I-Palmer

doi:10.3390/su13063379

Abstract

There is a growing debate surrounding the contradiction between an unremitting increase in the use of resources and the search for environmental sustainability. Therefore, the concept of sustainable degrowth is emerging aiming to introduce in our societies new social values and new policies, capable of satisfying human requirements whilst reducing environmental impacts and consumption of resources. In this framework, circular economy strategies for food production and food loss and waste management systems, following the Sustainable Development Goals agenda, are being developed based on a search for circularity, but without setting limits to the continual increase in environmental impacts and resource use. This work presents a methodology for determining the percentage of degrowth needed in any food supply chain, by analyzing four scenarios in a life cycle assessment approach over time between 2020 and 2040. Results for the Spanish case study suggested a degrowth need of 26.8% in 2015 and 58.9% in 2040 in order to achieve compliance with the Paris Agreement targets, highlighting the reduction of meat and fish and seafood consumption as the most useful path.

Highlights

The sustainable development promoted over more than three decades ago with the Brundtland Report [1] is a highly multi-disciplinary field of research that has been extensively studied during the last decades [2]
In Section 3.2. the degrowth needed in the Spanish food sector from 2020 until 2040 in order to achieve the Paris Agreement targets is determined, assessing the influence of each of the four pillars when thinking of strategies for degrowth towards a circular bioeconomy
Derived from the construction of the model and the energies associated with the food categories, the remaining seven categories increased their percentage of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, the categories of pulses (+68.3%) and vegetable oils

Summary

Introduction

The sustainable development promoted over more than three decades ago with the Brundtland Report [1] is a highly multi-disciplinary field of research that has been extensively studied during the last decades [2]. International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management highlights the fact, that the Global-North lifestyle is damaging its own environment, and that of poorer countries and, in general, the planet as a whole [6] as a big part of the environmental degradation in the “Global South” is due to externalized environmental costs derived from the consumption lifestyles in the Global North, which are not accounted for This fact is often being hidden with fallacies with a colonialist slant by the Global North such as the claim of the origin of environmental problems being in the presence of totalitarian governments, centrally controlled economies, or lack of freedom, considering that the solution lies in the mantra of a need to bet on the free market with independence of the states, when this independence has never really existed [7]. As a response to all these critical voices, the concept of sustainable degrowth is emerging aiming to introduce in our societies social values, and new policies, capable of satisfying human requirements whilst reducing the environmental impacts and consumption of resources [10]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion