The Circular Food Economy

“It’s one of those systems that’s really ripe for disruption.”

Food waste has a negative impact on the health of the planet; it increases greenhouse gas emissions and drives biodiversity loss. Can we redesign global food systems by applying circular economy principles?

Our current food system perpetuates waste along the value chain from farm to fork. As Reniera O'Donnell points out, we bend nature to produce food. By transitioning away from linear design to incorporate ingredients that are regenerative, low impact or upcycled, we can enable nature to thrive.

Reniera is the Food Initiative Lead at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation – a charity dedicated to accelerating the transition to a circular economy. Her work focuses on normalising circular design for food by 2030.

To gauge if a circular food economy could work in a real-world environment, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation conducted a research project, in partnership with the Sustainable Food Trust. In 2023, using a Circular Design for Food Framework, they launched the Big Food Redesign Challenge.

Global producers and retailers were invited to create new products or to redesign existing ones. It was so successful, some of the produce will retail in supermarkets in 2025.

Reniera says the challenge has strongly renewed her hope in finding long-term sustainable food solutions. The difficulty moving forward is scalability. To make a significant global impact, the challenge now is to catalyse the industry to encourage the world’s largest food companies and retailers to build circular design for food into their strategies and action plans.

We all stand to gain. The transition would help to eliminate food waste and pollution, regenerate natural ecosystems and allow nutrients to be circulated at their highest value, at no cost to the consumer. A circular food system could also provide attractive opportunities for investors to be at the forefront of what could be the dominant food system of the future.

To learn more about the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, visit their website.