Assessing Circular Economy Opportunities at the Food Supply Chain Level: The Case of Five Piedmont Product Chains

The impact of linear agri-food supply chains is progressively leading to ever wider socio-environmental and cultural repercussions, undermining the balance of territories and communities to the point of disrupting the entire planet’s health. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a paradigm change involving the agri-food sector, the economic sector, and local public policies, in the direction of a diffused ecological transition. In this scenario, the Circular Economy, supported by the adoption of a Systemic Approach, represents a useful operational tool to respond to complex transversal challenges, to reduce and enhance waste, minimize the use of new raw materials, and strengthen the territorial identity and relations among local stakeholders. This article describes a research project conducted for the Piedmont Region (Italy), through which it was possible to apply these innovative tools and approaches to five typical local agri-food chains (wine, dairy and cheese, rice, water, and bovine beef). Currently, at the Piedmontese level, concrete proposals for public policies capable of supporting the ecological transition of the local agri-food chains have not yet been developed, especially in terms of cyclicality of outputs and territorial co-evolution. For this reason, through the use of a multi-stakeholder approach, participatory mechanisms of local actors, and the analysis of several national and international case studies, the purpose of this research was to evaluate the possible enhancement of food waste and by-products, finally developing specific proposals for good practices and public policies capable of contributing to the achievement of the Piedmontese Regional Strategy for Sustainable Development.