Circular Economy For Dummies

Chapter 15

The Circular Economy of Food Production

IN THIS CHAPTER

Developing an understanding of agriculture and permaculture

Differentiating between monocultures and polycultures

Identifying the value of (and the relationship between) soil life, biomass, and organic waste

You probably don’t remember a time when agriculture wasn’t a major food industry. We humans live in a world where you can't miss the endless rows of single crops — corn, soybeans, grapes — that stand out like sore thumbs compared to the natural environment around them. The pattern stands out for a reason: Those tightly controlled rows are unnatural and result in a large amount of wasted food, energy, and time. They’re part of a linear economy.

The natural world is a powerful, abundant, and living system that’s just begging us humans to join the circular economy club. The natural world processes organic waste — dead foliage, microorganisms, and other once-living elements of the ecosystem — to serve as food for newly born plants and animals. The foliage that falls from a tree is softened by the rain that falls from the sky and is later consumed by insects such as ants, beetles, and worms. The waste that those ...