The transformative potential of circular agriculture initiatives in the North of the Netherlands

Summary

CONTEXT: Circular agriculture is increasingly seen as a way to produce food while respecting planetary boundaries. The buzz around circular agriculture results in a wide variety of initiatives and experiments aimed at implementing circularity in practice. So far, no studies provide a systematic overview of ways in which circularity is implemented in practice and the associated transformative potential. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study, therefore, is to analyse the transformative potential of circular agriculture initiatives within a regional context. In this study, we will address the following research questions: (1) which circular initiatives exist within the region, (2) to what extent do initiatives show transformative potential towards circular agriculture? METHODS: We created a systematic inventory of circular agricultural initiatives on a regional scale, alongside with a systematic empirical application of the framework, which builds on the concept of small wins and puts forward five concrete characteristics for transformative circular agriculture initiatives. We identified 171 circular agriculture initiatives in the North of the Netherlands and subsequently analysed 29 of these to determine their transformative potential. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The largest share of the 171 initiatives consists of primary producers, in particular dairy farmers. The in-depth analysis of 29 initiatives resulted in the following insights: many initiatives showed incremental, primarily technological changes and operate within the boundaries of the current system. Initiatives that show a higher transformative potential concerning the depth of change (or more ‘radical change’) are also likely to score higher on other dimensions of the framework (concrete outcomes, integration of circular agriculture principles, overcoming barriers, synergy technological and social change. We therefore endorse the importance of recognizing the initiatives with strong transformative potential and prevent that the implementation of circular agriculture remains focused on merely optimization within the current system while more fundamental changes are needed to address the sustainability challenges. SIGNIFICANCE: The results give insight into characteristics and transformative potential of circular agriculture initiatives which can help to identify where targeted interventions could be implemented to enhance the transformation. Our approach is thereby suitable to analyse the transformative potential of circular agriculture initiatives in other regions and can also be used to analyse the implementation of other sustainability ambitions.