Circular economy approaches to agriculture promise reduced waste but must be carefully designed to avoid compromising animal welfare.
Circular economy approaches to livestock farming have genuine sustainability benefits but require welfare scrutiny. Using food industry byproducts as livestock feed - brewer grains for cattle, whey for pigs, spent grains for dairy cows - is longstanding practice with generally good welfare outcomes when byproducts are nutritionally adequate. The revival of interest in controlled swill feeding requires careful pathogen management: the 2001 UK foot-and-mouth outbreak, traced to illegally fed unprocessed catering waste, caused immense welfare harm to millions of animals destroyed in control programs. Insect protein from waste-conversion systems introduces welfare questions about insect sentience alongside the sustainability benefits. Welfare-positive circular agriculture requires species-appropriate nutrition, pathogen safety and honest engagement with insect welfare uncertainty.