Living the circularity: the case study of the FUSILLI and FISH researches

In the contemporary global scenario, high-impact food production and consumption models are progressively leading to increasingly complex environmental and social repercussions, involving urban, peri-urban and rural areas, compromising human and planetary health. However, there are operational tools and approaches capable of responding effectively and in a transdisciplinary manner to the complex challenges that the agri-food system is facing. Among these, Systemic Design and Circular Economy for Food are proposed as design methods capable of studying and applying systemic and circular solutions able to reduce the impact of linear agri-food supply chains, prevent the generation of waste, create local co-evolution processes and preserve the natural and cultural capital typical of a territory. Within this contribution, the application of these tools and methodologies to two specific and different case studies will be described: the European Project FUSILLI (Fostering the Urban food System Transformation through Innovative Living Labs Implementation), which focused on the urban context of the city of Turin, in connection with 12 other European cities, and the Italian Project FISH (Hydrolyzed Fertilizer Soil and Habitat), framed, instead, within the Ligurian regional context. In the first case, the systemic design of circular solutions applied to the urban food catering and agricultural sector is underway, while, in the second case, the design of a circular business model for the development of a sustainable and scalable fish and horticultural value chain, starting from the reuse of fish industry byproducts for the production of an innovative biostimulant.