Achieving Sustainable Phosphorus Use in Food Systems through Circularisation

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dc.contributor.authorWithers, Paul J. A.
dc.contributor.authorDoody, Donnacha
dc.contributor.authorSylvester-Bradley, Roger
dc.date.accessioned2021-06-11T11:00:17Z
dc.date.available2021-06-11T11:00:17Z
dc.date.issued2018-05-30
dc.descriptionPublication history: Accepted - 28 May 2018; Published - 30 May 2018.en_US
dc.description.abstractThe notion of a phosphorus (P) circular economy provides the philosophy, framework, and opportunity to enable food production systems to become more efficient, sustainable, and resilient to a future P scarcity or sudden price shock. Whilst P recovery and recycling are central strategies for closing the P cycle, additional gains in environmental performance of food systems can be obtained by further minimising the amounts of P (a) introduced into the food system by lowering system P demand and (b) lost from the system by utilising legacy P stores in the landscape. This minimisation is an important cascading component of circularisation because it reduces the amounts of P circulating in the system, the amounts of P required to be recycled/recovered and the storage of unused P in the landscape, whilst maintaining agricultural output. The potential for circularisation and minimisation depends on regional differences in these P flow dynamics. We consider incremental and transformative management interventions towards P minimisation within circular economies, and how these might be tempered by the need to deliver a range of ecosystem services. These interventions move away from current production philosophies based on risk-averse, insurance-based farming, and current consumption patterns which have little regard for their environmental impact. We argue that a greater focus on P minimisation and circularisation should catalyse different actors and sectors in the food chain to embrace P sustainability and should empower future research needs to provide the confidence for them to do so without sacrificing future regional food security.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipThis paper was produced as part of the RePhoKUs project (The role of phosphorus in the sustainability and resilience of the UK food system) funded by BBSRC, ESRC, NERC, and the Scottish Government under the UK Global Food Security research programme (Grant No. BB/R005842/1).en_US
dc.identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12518/271
dc.identifier.citationWithers, P., Doody, D. and Sylvester-Bradley, R. (2018) ‘Achieving Sustainable Phosphorus Use in Food Systems through Circularisation’, Sustainability, 10(6), p. 1804. doi: 10.3390/su10061804.en_US
dc.identifier.issn2071-1050
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.3390/su10061804
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherMDPIen_US
dc.rights© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).en_US
dc.subjectphosphorusen_US
dc.subjectfood systemen_US
dc.subjectcircular economyen_US
dc.subjectcircularisationen_US
dc.subjectminimisationen_US
dc.subjectefficiencyen_US
dc.subjectresilienceen_US
dc.subjectsustainabilityen_US
dc.titleAchieving Sustainable Phosphorus Use in Food Systems through Circularisationen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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