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Cities can steer circular food systems at scale

Nature Food volume 4, page 4 (2023)Cite this article

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While food production occurs mostly in rural areas, cities have a central position in the global food system as unique spaces where food processing, distribution, consumption and disposal activities cluster together with research and innovation. With Earth’s urban population currently at 57% and growing, urban areas are not only hotspots of food demand, they also house most of the voters and institutions, creating effective grounds for steering regional and national food policies1. Cities are thus characterized by the spatial agglomeration of citizens, companies and institutions — all key actors for circular food systems.

Transitioning towards a regenerative circular food system means that agricultural and food production cycles of superfluous input and output materials are closed, with processing by-products shared, residual waste minimized and valorized, and human capital not exploited2. As material loops of the agri-food value web are spread over local, national and global interlinkages, a fully circular food system can only be reached by closing the loop between regenerative agricultural production, food demand and bio-based waste of cities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Urban Economics Group, Department of Social Sciences, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands

    Joana Wensing, Roger Cremades & Eveline van Leeuwen

  2. Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS), Amsterdam, the Netherlands

    Eveline van Leeuwen

Authors
  1. Joana Wensing
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  2. Roger Cremades
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  3. Eveline van Leeuwen
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Correspondence to Eveline van Leeuwen.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Wensing, J., Cremades, R. & van Leeuwen, E. Cities can steer circular food systems at scale. Nat Food 4, 4 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-022-00682-w

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