Circular agriculture & animal welfare
The livestock sector is of vital importance for European food production, but is currently unsustainable. Transition policies for the livestock sector sometimes have unforeseen effects which present risks to food security, the environment, animal and public health, animal welfare, economies, and social systems. For an effective transition to sustainable livestock farming, there is an urgent need to gain insights across all of these dimensions.
Future Food Utrecht – Circular Agriculture Group (RESCALE)
Circular agriculture is potentially a powerful means of farming in a more ecologically sound manner; the idea of “zero-waste” presented with circular agriculture is intuitively highly attractive. However, potential risks as a result of a move from current agricultural standards to circular agriculture can be anticipated. These will need to be identified in order to facilitate development of a safe and resilient agricultural system. The RESCALE-group aims to understand what the risks of a transition to a circular farming system may be and how we can reduce these risks by preventing exposure to novel hazards and building resilience in the connected agricultural, environmental and socioeconomic systems. The group includes researchers from the Faculties of Veterinary Medicine, Geosciences and Law, Economics & Governance.
Contact: Rebecca Nordquist
REWIRE - Leveraging new collaborations for circular agriculture missions – a multilevel ecosystem approach
REWIRE is a 4-year research project funded by the Dutch research council NWO under its call on ‘Collaboration in mission-driven innovation’. The aim of the project is to develop, from an ecosystem perspective, practically applicable methods that support collaborative activities oriented towards finding new business models and designing appropriate policy frameworks. Special attention will be paid to coordination issues between (supra-) national governments, regional governments, and the various organisations ‘in the field’ – in this case of circular agriculture.
Contact: Koen Frenken