ReFeed Canada is pioneering Circular Nutrition™

Moving toward a sustainable, zero-waste agri-food industry

Food is among the most basic human needs, yet the current food system sees over 50% of the food produced end up in landfills or compost facilities while millions of live with food insecurity, unable to guarantee access to adequate nutrition for themselves and their families. 

ReFeed Canada was founded with the mission of repairing the food system by capturing and using 100% of the nutrition found in unused food and returning it to feed people, livestock, and the soil. ReFeed calls this approach Circular Nutrition™. 

The perishability of food presents challenges in developing the sort of circular models which now see the extensive harvesting of used glass, metals, and other materials through established and understood recycling and reuse programs. That’s why much of the current food system runs on a linear model, where most unsold and unused foods end up in landfills or compost facilities where the unused food also releases greenhouse gasses as it breaks down.

The Circular Nutrition model reimagines the food use cycle to extract full nutrition from the unused and excess food through the following steps: 

• Redirect usable food to food banks
• Turn excess food into consumer goods like dehydrated fruit snacks
• Process produce and produce trim vegetables into livestock feed
• Use worm beds to produce natural fertilizers and soil amendment products with remaining food. 

The benefits of this mode include avoiding using land to produce food exclusively for livestock, reducing the need for newly produced food, reducing the use of synthetic fertilizers and herbicides, increased carbon sequestration, and feeding people in need. 

The ReFeed Farm in Langley, BC has been the test bed and proving ground for Circular Nutrition, where it has demonstrated its effectiveness, scalability, and economic benefits. It is modular and portable, and can be used to improve food use and decrease food loss wherever they are applied.