Toward a Socio-Political Approach to Promote the Development of Circular Agriculture: A Critical Review

Under the dual pressure of ensuring global food security and coping with the effects of climate change, many countries have proposed projects of circular agriculture to mitigate the vulnerability of agricultural systems. However, due to the different utilizations of agricultural resources in different countries, there are still some important limitations and obstacles to the promotion of agricultural recycling technologies. This review discusses global circular agriculture projects from a social science perspective. We found that (1) current research on circular agriculture is concentrated in the field of natural sciences with a focus on technological upgrading, neglecting social, political and economic research; (2) top-down circular agriculture projects rely on infrastructure and technical inputs for management, which undermines the focus on public participation and is limited by the timing and intensity of state intervention; (3) the development model led by enterprises or associations relies on cooperation and benefit games with farmers, and its sustainability depends largely on changes in the regulation of the agricultural waste utilization system. Based on this, this review argues that circular agriculture projects are not only technical issues in the field of natural sciences, but also strongly influenced by social development. For future research, we strongly recommend cross-disciplinary cooperation, not limited to technology development.