A Gentle Rant About CO2 and ‘Circular’ Greenwashing

Examining CO2 reminded me of some common misconceptions about circularity. These misconceptions are more common than I had expected, and lead to unhelpful greenwashing. They apply to all material flows, but CO2 is a good example. Continue reading A Gentle Rant About CO2 and ‘Circular’ Greenwashing

Hello 2023!

It’s been even longer, hasn’t it? I’m still here though. Perhaps I haven’t been blogging as much because as a researcher, the writer’s bandwidth I would have used here has been taken up by projects at work. Still, this evening I felt an itch to write a bit about what’s happened over the past year, and some plans for 2023 and beyond. Continue reading Hello 2023!

Circular Urban Farming at GreenTech 2020

The circular economy is something I was happy to see feature heavily at GreenTech 2020. It seemed to be on everyone’s mind when discussing sustainability, and there was even a dedicated session on it. The topic: vertical farming’s role in the circular economy. Continue reading Circular Urban Farming at GreenTech 2020

Biobased Materials: Where Should They Come From, Where Should They Go?

Indoor agriculture is touted as sustainable, but it requires a lot of materials – plastics, rockwool, and packaging, for example. How can these be made more circular? Continue reading Biobased Materials: Where Should They Come From, Where Should They Go?

Circularity, Livestock, and Nutrients

What should the broad vision be to achieve circularity? Circularity is a big theme on this blog. I usually talk about indoor agriculture, but the same concepts apply to our whole food system. At the NVTL’s conference, Martin van Ittersum gave a presentation on a compelling vision to achieve this. Continue reading Circularity, Livestock, and Nutrients

Circular Horticulture, Part 2: Pitches

Last week I attended Wageningen Research’s Greenhouse Horticulture business unit’s event on research into circular horticulture for 2025. After the main presentation on the group’s vision and ideas (which you can read about here), there were six short presentations. Three Continue reading Circular Horticulture, Part 2: Pitches

Circular Horticulture 2025, Part 1: Visions and Goals for Research

Last Thursday I attended Circular Horticulture 2025, an event organised by Wageningen Research’s Greenhouse Horticulture business unit. The topic was their vision and goals for future research within circular horticulture. Continue reading Circular Horticulture 2025, Part 1: Visions and Goals for Research

Nottingham: What Drives Success in Agri-Business?

Last July, I followed a two-week summer school about agri-business at the University of Nottingham. I spent the first 10 years of my life in rural England and knew a few people with a farming background, but the ins and Continue reading Nottingham: What Drives Success in Agri-Business?

An Evening with Proti-Farm

Last week, I attended an evening organised by Heeren XVII, the biosystems engineers’ society at Wageningen University. The theme was insects. A presentation was given by Bart de Ruiter, director of R&D at Proti-Farm, a Dutch company producing insects.   Continue reading An Evening with Proti-Farm