Closing the food loops: Guidelines and criteria for improving nutrient management
Journal article, 2015

As global consumption expands, the world is increasingly facing threats to resource availability and food security. To meet future food demands, agricultural resource efficiency needs to be optimized for both water and nutrients. Policy makers should start to radically rethink nutrient management across the entire food chain. Closing the food loop by recycling nutrients in food waste and excreta is an important way of limiting the use of mineral nutrients, as well as improving national and global food security. This article presents a framework for sustainable nutrient management and discusses the responsibility of four key stakeholder groups—agriculture, the food industry, consumers, and waste management—for achieving an effective food loop. In particular, we suggest a number of criteria, policy actions, and supporting strategies based on a cross-sectoral application of the waste hierarchy.

Agricultural wastes

Waste utilization

Food processing industry wastes

Material balance

Food additives

Author

Jennifer R Mc Conville

Chalmers, Architecture, Urban Design and Planning

Jan Olof Drangert

Linköping University

Pernilla Tidåker

Swedish Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering (JTI)

Tina Simone Neset

Linköping University

Sebastien Rauch

Chalmers, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Water Environment Technology

Ingrid Strid

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)

Karin Tonderski

Linköping University

Sustainability: Science, Practice, and Policy

15487733 (eISSN)

Vol. 11 2 33-43

Subject Categories

Social Sciences Interdisciplinary

Renewable Bioenergy Research

Environmental Management

DOI

10.1080/15487733.2015.11908144

More information

Latest update

9/3/2018 1