Shifting to a circular global food system requires coordinated action by all value chain actors, including producers, transporters, retailers and consumers (governments, businesses, and individuals). Although difficult to achieve structural change on the required scale, the benefits are clear: estimates show that a circular economy for food could reduce global food sector emissions by 49% in 2050, decrease the health costs related to the current system, and generate annual benefits worth USD 2.7 trillion by 2050.
While the majority of natural resource use and environmental impacts occur at the primary production stage, primary smallholder producers have a limited ability to shape food systems and change their production practices. The middle stages of the food value chain - comprising food companies, retail and food services - are structurally powerful and, to a large degree, shape both what farmers produce and sell as well as what individuals buy and eat.
Collaboration across key food sectors (retail and manufacturing) and value chains is critical to embedding circularity in food systems. By working together in a pre-competitive forum to achieve collective goals on changing protein consumption, food waste reduction, and recycling and resource sharing, businesses and organisations from across food systems can learn from each other, cooperate, and deliver change in the most efficient and effective way.
In addition to fostering the development of partnerships, UNEP supports baseline data collection, map upcycling opportunities, and build capacity for business adoption of circular economy principles, such as product life extension, sharing economy models, and waste-to-resource initiatives.
