Three-stage circular efficiency evaluation of agricultural food production, food consumption, and food waste recycling in EU countries

Abstract

This study adopts the Modified Dynamic Three-stage Circular Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) Model to explore food production, consumption, and waste recycling in 27 European countries from 2008 to 2016 and use food waste recycling as the circular link to the production stage as the circular economy. According to the empirical results, Germany and Malta have the best overall efficiency. In the three stages, the primary governance stage is the food waste recycle stage, and the second one is the food production stage. According to the Pearson's correlation coefficient test, the agriculture output, food waste, food waste recycling, CO2, and Methane are all highly correlated with extremely significant. The study is closer to the phenomena presented in the real world and the empirical results could be used to illustrate the corresponding strategies for national food security.