Circular Bionutrient Economy for AgriFood System Transition

Perspectives in Global Development: Spring 2023 Seminar Series

Abstract

Achieving enhanced circularity in agrifood systems is essential to sustainably feed a growing global population. There is an urgent need to generate reliable conceptual and generalizable knowledge about a circular bionutrient economy, as well as to develop evidence-based policies that maximize resources dedicated to enhancing nutrient justice and agrifood system sustainability. It is also important to recognize the diversity of existing pathways towards a circular bionutrient economy that are already being adopted. By promoting a circular bionutrient economy through recognition, (re)distribution, and procedure, there is substantial potential to simultaneously improve the productivity and sustainability of agriculture while alleviating injustice in food production and mitigating its environmental impacts. With concerted efforts towards enhancing circularity, we can contribute towards a more just, equitable, and sustainable future.

About the speaker

Chuan Liao is Assistant Professor in the Department of Global Development at Cornell University. As an interdisciplinary sustainability and environmental social scientist, Chuan’s research interest lies at the intersection of environment, development, and justice. He develops and applies integrated approaches to study human-environment interactions by linking statistical, spatial, and other quantitative methods. He has worked on topics that include land tenure and land use change, food security, pastoralist mobility and livelihoods, community-based natural resources management, dryland sustainability, and sustainable energy transition.

He is Editor-in-Chief of World Development, a multi-disciplinary monthly journal of development studies that seeks to explore ways of improving standards of living and human condition by examining potential solutions to problems such as poverty, unemployment, malnutrition, disease, gender and ethnic discrimination, and environmental degradation.

Prior to Cornell, he was Assistant Professor in the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University for 4 years and Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School for Environment and Sustainability at University of Michigan for 3 years. Chuan obtained his BS in Resource Science at Beijing Normal University, and his MS and PhD in Natural Resources at Cornell University.

About the seminar series

The Perspectives in Global Development seminars are held Wednesdays from 12:25 – 1:15 p.m. eastern time during the semester. The series will be presented in a hybrid format with some speakers on campus and others appearing via Zoom. All seminars are shown in Emerson Hall 135. Students, faculty and the general public are welcome to attend. The series is co-sponsored by the Department of Global Development, the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, and the School of Integrative Plant Science as part of courses GDEV 4961, AEM 4961, NTRES 4961, GDEV 6960, AEM 6960, and NTRES 6960.