Circular and green economy: the state-of-the-art

Abstract

Circular and green economy are relevant issues in the agricultural sector, and animate the academic and policy debates: they contribute to identify and address the environmental and social problems raised by the economic development of the global economy. This study aims at reviewing the literature on circular and green economy, with a particular emphasis on the agri-food systems and their supply chains. It includes a systematic literature review and a bibliometric analysis, based on 1,061 documents that are indexed in the Scopus database. The bibliometric analysis identifies dominant thematic research areas, such as "Circular Economy", "Green Economy", "Food Waste", and "Environmental Impacts". The analysis of publication patterns and emerging topics suggests that future research should focus on the nexus "food waste and environmental impacts", and emphasizes the need to adopt a multidiscipinary approach to investigate the complex nexus between the food waste and the environment.

Keywords: Agri-food supply chain; Agri-food system; Bibliometric analysis; Environmental impact; Food waste.