The circular economy for food in future cities. Good practices that define Smart Food
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.19229/2464-9309/8232020Keywords:
food system, circular economy, SDGs, sustainable business model, smart foodAbstract
Food, a basic unit of connection among all SDGs, plays an essential role in the transition towards a sustainable development. This essay makes its scientific contribution to define both the theoretical-practical framework where the Circular Economy for food is developing and, in particular, its application to the urban context. When the population increases, the resources demand increases in the urban areas too, and environmental problems and socio-economic differences among citizens emerge. The analysis originates from 27 case histories concerning the food system, selected in order to represent the circular business models emerging from urban contexts and differing in the several steps of the food supply chain. Nine of them are closely studied in this essay to make the analysis clearer. A so-called Smart Food framework emerges, where the urban circular economy communicates with sustainable development in a systemic and regenerative way.
Downloads
Article Metrics Graph
References
Bateson, G. (2000), Steps to an Ecology of Mind – Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology, Chicago University Press, Chicago.
Bocken, N. M. P., Short, S. W., Rana, P. and Evans, S. (2014), “A literature and practice review to develop sustainable business model archetypes”, in Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 65, pp. 42-56. [Online] Available at: doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2013.11.039 [Accessed 27 September 2020].
Boulding, K. E. (1966), The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth. [Online] Available at: www.ub.edu/prometheus21/articulos/obsprometheus/BOULDING.pdf [Accessed 27 September 2020].
Bourdieu, P. (1980), “Le capital social – Notes provisoires”, in Actes de la Recherche En Sciences Sociales, vol. 31, pp. 2-3. [Online] Available at: www.persee.fr/docAsPDF/arss_0335-5322_1980_num_31_1_2069.pdf [Accessed 27 September 2020].
Calori, A. and Magarini, A. (2015), Food and the Cities – Politiche del cibo per città sostenibili, Edizioni Ambiente, Milano.
Capra, F. (1996), The Web of Life – A New Synthesis of Mind and Matter, Flamingo, London.
Çelik, F. (2017), “The importance of edible landscape in the cities”, in Turkish Journal of Agriculture – Food Science and Technology, vol. 5, n. 2, pp. 118-124. [Online] Available at: doi.org/10.24925/turjaf.v5i2.118-124.957 [Accessed 27 September 2020].
Centre of Regional Science (2007), Smart cities – Ranking of European medium-sized cities. Available at: smart-cities.eu/download/smart_cities_final_report.pdf [Accessed 26 September 2020].
Commoner, B. (2020), The Closing Circle – Nature, Man, and Technology, Dover Publications, New York.
Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2019a), Cities and Circular Economy for Food. [Online] Available at: www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/assets/downloads/Cities-and-Circular-Economy-for-Food_280119.pdf [Accessed 24 September 2020].
Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2019b), Completing the Picture – How Circular Economy Tackles Climate Change. [Online] Available at: www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/assets/downloads/ Completing_The_Picture_How_The_Circular_Economy-_Tackles_Climate_Change_V3_26_September.pdf [Accessed 26 September 2020].
Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2017), Cities in the Circular Economy – An Initial Exploration. [Online] Available at: www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/assets/downloads/publications/Cities-in-the-CE_An-Initial-Exploration.pdf [Accessed 27 September 2020].
European Commission (2020), Farm to Fork Strategy – For a fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food system. [Online] Available at: ec.europa.eu/food/sites/food/files/safety/docs/f2f_action-plan_2020_strategy-info_en.pdf [Accessed 26 September 2020].
FAO (2020), Urban food systems and Covid-19 – The role of cities and local governments in responding to the emergency, 09/04/2020. [Online] Available at: doi.org/10.4060/ca8600en [Accessed 31 October 2020].
FAO (2019), School Food and Nutrition – School-based food and nutrition education. [Online] Available at: www.fao.org/school-food/areas-work/based-food-nutrition-education [Accessed 27 September 2020].
FAO (2017), The future of food and agriculture – Trends and challenges. [Online] Available at: www.fao.org/3/a-i6583e.pdf [Accessed 24 September 2020].
FAO (2014), AQUASTAT – FAO’s Global System on Water and Agriculture. [Online] Available at: www.fao.org/aquastat/en/ [Accessed 21 September 2020].
FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO (2019), The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2019 – Safeguarding against economic slowdowns and downturns. [Online] Available at: www.fao.org/state-of-food-security-nutrition [Accessed 22 September 2020].
FAO, IFAD and WFP (2015), Achieving Zero Hunger – The critical role of investments in social protection and agriculture. [Online] Available at: www.fao.org/3/a-i4951e.pdf [Accessed 21 September 2020].
Fassio, F. (2020), “La rigenerazione della terra per la salute dell’umanità | Earth regeneration for Human Health”, in Renewable matter, n. 31, pp. 46-55.
Fassio, F. and Minotti, B. (2019), “Circular Economy for Food Policy: The Case of the RePoPP Project in The City of Turin (Italy)”, in Sustainability, vol. 11, issue 21, article 6078, pp. 1-17. [Online] Available at: doi.org/10.3390/su11216078 [Accessed 21 September 2020].
Fassio, F. and Tecco, N. (2019), “Circular Economy for Food – A Systemic Interpretation of 40 Case Histories in the Food System in Their Relationships with SDGs”, in Systems, vol. 7, issue 3, article 43, pp. 1-14. [Online] Available at: doi.org/10.3390/systems7030043 [Accessed 31 October 2020].
Fassio, F. and Tecco, N. (2018), Circular Economy for Food – Materia, Energia e Conoscenza, in Circolo, Edizioni Ambiente, Milano.
Forrester, J. W. (1961), Industrial Dynamics, MIT Press, Cambridge.
Geissdoerfer, M., Savaget, P., Bocken, N. M. P. and Hultink, E. J. (2017), “The Circular Economy – A new sustainability paradigm?”, in Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 143, pp. 757-768. [Online] Available at: doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.12.048 [Accessed 21 September 2020].
Grooten, M. and Almond, R. E. A. (2018), Living Planet Report – 2018 – Aiming higher, WWF, Gland. [Online] Available at: c402277.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/ publications/1187/files/original/LPR2018_Full_Report_Spreads.pdf [Accessed 23 September 2020].
IPCC (2014), Climate Change 2014 – Mitigation of Climate Change – Working Group III Contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. [Online] Available at: www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/ipcc_wg3_ar5_full.pdf [Accessed 21 September 2020].
Klein, A.-M., Vaissière, B. E., Cane, J. H., Steffan-Dewenter, I., Cunningham, S. A., Kremen, C. and Tscharntke, T. (2007), “Importance of pollinators in changing landscapes for world crops”, in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, vol. 274, pp. 303-313. [Online] Available at: doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2006.3721 [Accessed 29 September 2020].
Lautenbach, S., Seppelt, R., Liebscher, J. and Dormann, C. F. (2012), “Spatial and Temporal Trends of Global Pollination Benefit”, in PLoS ONE, vol. 7, n. 4, e35954, pp. 1-16. [Online] Available at: doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0035954 [Accessed 21 September 2020].
Lovins, A. B., Lovins, L. H. and Hawken, P. (1999), “A Road Map for Natural Capitalism”, in Harvard Business Review, May-June, reprint number 99309, pp. 145-158. [Online] Available at: www.academia.edu/31437244/A_Road_Map_for_Natural_Capitalism [Accessed 21 September 2020].
Maslow, A. H. (1954), Motivation and Personality, Harper, New York.
Meadows, D. H. and Wright, D. (2009), Thinking in systems, Earthscan, London.
Meadows, D. H., Meadows, D. L., Randers, J. and Behrens III, W. W. (1977), The limits to growth – A report to the Club of Rome’s Project on the Predicament of Mankind, Universe Books, New York. [Online] Available at: www.donellameadows.org/wp-content/userfiles/Limits-to-Growth-digital-scan-version.pdf [Accessed 11 September 2020].
NESTA et alii (2011), Compendium for the Civic Economy – What the Big Society should learn from 25 trailblazers, 00:/, London. [Online] Available at: issuu.com/architecture00/docs/compendium_for_the_civic_economy_publ [Accessed 11 September 2020].
Papa Francesco (2015), Laudato sì – Enciclica sulla cura della casa comune, San Paolo Edizioni, Cinisello Balsamo.
Parfitt, J., Barthel, M. and Macnaugthon, S. (2010), “Food waste within food supply chains: quantification and potential for change to 2050”, in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, vol. 365, issue 1554, pp. 3065-3081. [Online] Available at: doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0126 [Accessed 11 September 2020].
Petrini, C. (2016), Buono, Pulito e Giusto – Principi di una nuova gastronomia, Einaudi, Torino.
Population Reference Bureau (2020), 2020 World Population Data Sheet Show Older Populations Growing, Total Fertility Rates Declining. [Online] Available at: www.prb.org/2020-world-population-data-sheet/ [Accessed 21 September 2020].
Raworth, K. (2017), Doughnut Economics – Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist, Random House Business Books, London.
Ritala, P., Huotari, P., Bocken, N., Albareda, L. and Puumalainen, K. (2018), “Sustainable business model adoption among S&P 500 firms – A longitudinal content analysis study”, in Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 170, pp. 216-226. [Online] Available at: doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.09.159 [Accessed 21 September 2020].
Rockström, J. et alii (2009), “Planetary Boundaries – Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity”, in Ecology and Society, vol. 14, n. 2, article 32. [Online] Available at: www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss2/art32/ [Accessed 21 September 2020].
Rodgers, L. (2018), “Climate change – The massive CO2 emitter you may not know about”, in BBC News, 17/12/2018. [Online] Available at: www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46455844 [Accessed 28 September 2020].
Sohni, S., Nidaullah, H., Gul, K., Ahmad, I. and Omar A. K. M. (2018), “Nanotechnology for Safe and Sustainable Environment: Realm of Wonders”, in Khan, S. B., Asiri, A. M. and Akhtar, K. (2018), Nanomaterials and their Fascinating Attributes – Development and Prospective Applications of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, vol. 2, Bentham Science Publishers, Sharajah (UAE), pp. 37-117.
Swan, M. (2015), Blockchain – Blueprint for a New Economy, O’Reilly Media, Sebastopol.
Thomaier, S., Specht, K., Henckel, D., Dierich, A., Siebert, R., Freisinger, U. B. and Sawicka, M. (2015), “Farming in and on urban buildings – Present practice and specific novelties of Zero-Acreage Farming (ZFarming)”, in Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, vol. 30, S.I. 1, pp. 43-54. [Online] Available at: doi.org/10.1017/S1742170514000143 [Accessed 28 September 2020].
UNEP (2016), Global material flows and resource productivity – Assessment Report for the UNEP International Resource Panel. [Online] Available at: www.resourcepanel.org/reports/global-material-flows-and-resource-productivity-database-link [Accessed 24 September 2020].
United Nations (2018), World Urbanization Prospect. [Online] Available at: population.un.org/wup/Publications/Files/WUP2018-Report.pdf [Accessed 25 September 2020].
United Nations – General Assembly (2015), Transforming Our World – The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 25 September 2015. [Online] Available at: www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/70/1&Lang=E [Accessed 29 September 2020].
Utter, J., Denry, S., Lucassen, M. and Dyson, B. (2016), “Adolescent Cooking Abilities and Behaviors – Associations with Nutrition and Emotional Well-Being”, in Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, vol. 48, issue 1, pp. 35-41. [Online] Available at: doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2015.08.016 [Accessed 29 September 2020].
van Nieuwkoop, M. (2019), “Do the cost of the global food system outweigh its monetary value?”, in World Bank Blogs, 17/06/2017. [Online] Available at: blogs.worldbank.org/voices/do-costs-global-food-system-outweigh-its-monetary-value [Accessed 25 September 2020].
WHO – World Health Organization (2017), World Health Statistics 2017 – Monitoring Health for the SDGs. [Online] Available at: apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/255336/9789241565486-eng.pdf?sequence=1 [Accessed 25 September 2020].
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This Journal is published under Creative Commons Attribution Licence 4.0 (CC-BY).
License scheme | Legal code
This License allows anyone to:
Share: copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.
Adapt: remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
Under the following terms
Attribution: Users must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made; users may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses them or their use.
No additional restrictions: Users may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
Notices
Users do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
No warranties are given. The license may not give users all of the permissions necessary for their intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.