Incorporating Circular Bioeconomy into the Sustainable Development of Small Farms in the United States: A Socioeconomic Roadmap

Smallholder farms, which comprise 86% of two million farms in the United States, are essential components of food security, rural economies, and environmental sustainability in the nation. Despite this, small farms are immensely underserved and struggle to obtain access to resources, technology, markets, and financing. Besides increasing disruption of global supply chains, climate change has added an extra layer of pressure—exacerbating the current vulnerabilities through extreme weather, soil degradation, and extended growing seasons, threatening long-term viability. To address these issues, it is crucial to engage and listen to smallholder farmers and their needs, making them a center of the solution design process that considers affordability and practicality. Collaboration between the stakeholders of farm operations, including government agencies, farmers, engineers, and researchers, can help combine resources and knowledge to support climate-smart small-scale farming. It is also important that this support reaches members of marginalized, vulnerable, and underrepresented communities. In this chapter, we explore the adoption of circular bioeconomy principles to ensure resource efficiency, regenerative land use, climatic adaptation, waste management, and many other benefits. Next steps for applying the circular bioeconomy principles include promoting financial support, infrastructure development, agricultural literacy, and policy reform. The ensuing significant aspect of the circular bioeconomy is the advocation for participatory approaches in co-designing circular bioeconomy systems that center affordability and empowerment of farmers. Through these methods, smallholder farmers can become powerful agents of food security, local economic support, and net zero emissions.