Localising the food loop, strengthening the farm ecosystem
Brief: For more than a decade, GYC has researched and tested ways to return organic materials from tourism and hospitality sector to soil and farms—reconnecting the natural cycle between soil, crops, animals, natural fertilisers and food. A 2024 study of 31 accommodation establishments in Hội An found that food residues and fruit and vegetable processing waste together accounted for 63.1% of sampled solid waste by wet weight. GYC’s Working Model builds safe local pathways from suitable, source-separated organic materials to biological processing, soil and farm production; Agroecology guides how these flows can strengthen a diverse and locally viable food system. Parts of the organics pathway are operating at Hội An Eco Hub, while connected farm-scale practice is developing at REwild Farm in Gò Nổi. “Closed loop” describes the direction of the work: preserving biological value, rebuilding ecological functions and developing the roles, infrastructure, finance and learning required to keep the cycle working.
In nature, nutrients move through living food webs
Plants, animals and microorganisms are connected through food, by-products and decomposing matter. What leaves one living process becomes nourishment for another. Nutrients move repeatedly through soil, biomass and living organisms.
Tourism and modern economy often interrupt these cycles. Food and other biological materials enter hotels, restaurants and hospitality businesses from many places. After preparation and consumption, the remaining materials leave as waste. Meanwhile, nearby farms may purchase fertiliser, animal feed and growing media to replace nutrients and organic matter removed through production.
This is a significant local material flow. In a study of 31 accommodation service establishments in Hội An, food residues made up an average of 42.8% of sampled solid waste and fruit and vegetable processing waste a further 20.3%. Together, food-related organic materials accounted for 63.1% by wet weight (Ho, Phan and Adekola, 2024).
The study sampled waste once at each establishment, so the result should be read as a composition snapshot rather than an annual estimate for the entire tourism sector. It also includes both edible and inedible materials and should not be presented as 63.1% avoidable food waste.
The same study found that 84% of the sampled establishments separated food residues for transfer as livestock or poultry feed. This matters. It shows that local circulation practices already exist. The question is whether these pathways are safe, accountable, reliable and appropriate for each material.
A separated bucket is not yet a closed loop
Preventing avoidable food waste and keeping edible food within the human food system remain the upstream priorities of Circular Tourism & Zero Waste. This Working Model begins with the suitable organic materials that remain after prevention and proper source separation.
Moving those materials from a tourism business to a farm does not, by itself, create a functioning loop.
Mixed or contaminated materials may carry plastics, chemicals or other risks. Unreliable collection can leave businesses with odour and storage problems. A treatment process can produce compost or another output that is difficult to market. Transport, equipment and labour create costs, while responsibility for quality and failure may remain unclear.
Each pathway therefore needs:
- known and well-separated material inputs;
- appropriate collection and storage;
- inspection and contamination controls;
- a biological process matched to the material;
- trained and paid operators;
- a productive and traceable use for the output;
- monitoring of material, labour, cost and quality;
- finance that does not transfer the full burden to farmers or waste workers.
The core challenge is to build these elements into a dependable local service.
One food-system model, two connected disciplines
Closed-loop Farming and Agroecology contribute different but complementary forms of design.
Closed-loop Farming organises biological material and nutrient flows. It asks where a material comes from, what it contains, which organism or process can use it safely and where the resulting output should go next.
Agroecology looks at the whole farm and food system. It considers the relationships among soil, water, plants, animals, microorganisms, farmers, consumers, knowledge, markets and local institutions. FAO’s framework places diversity, synergies, recycling, resilience, knowledge-sharing, human and social values, responsible governance and circular and solidarity economies within the same agroecological transition (FAO, 2018).
A farm can apply compost and still leave its soil exposed, depend on monocultures, lose habitat or require more labour than farmers can sustain. Nutrient circulation therefore needs to serve a wider ecological and social design.
This is where restorative and regenerative practice meet.
Restorative practice rebuilds conditions that food production depends on: soil cover, organic matter, water retention, habitat and biological activity. Regenerative practice connects production, knowledge, enterprise and local demand so that ongoing economic activity can help maintain and improve those conditions.
Together, Closed-loop Farming and Agroecology create a food-system model that reconnects what the local economy consumes with what the land and the people caring for it need.
How a closed loop is designed
Know the material
Kitchen preparation residues, plate waste, landscape biomass, crop residues and animal nutrients have different properties and risks. They should not be mixed into one undifferentiated organic stream.
Source separation preserves quality. Records and inspection make it possible to understand where materials came from, what has entered them and which uses remain appropriate.
Preserve biological value
Suitable organic materials should be directed towards their highest safe and useful application under local conditions.
Depending on material quality, regulation, infrastructure and intended use, a stream may support animal, insect or microbial processes, composting, soil improvement, mulch or growing media. The objective is to retain biological value while managing food and feed safety, contamination, labour, emissions and cost.
Build cascades
One process should lead into another where this is useful and safe.
Organic materials may support insects, animals or microbial activity. By-products from those processes can become inputs for worms, composting or soil improvement. The resulting soil inputs support crops, trees and biomass, which can provide food, feed, habitat and new material for the system.
This creates a network of connected pathways rather than dependence on one treatment technology.
Balance the whole system
The quantity and timing of material inputs must match processing capacity and the actual needs of farms. Soil inputs need productive uses. Crops need people, meals or markets that value them. Equipment needs maintenance, and operators need stable roles and income.
A pathway works only when its ecological, operational and economic conditions work together.
The local food loop: Tourism and local food use → clean organic material flows → matched biological pathways → soil and farm production → local meals, markets and learning → resources for continued stewardship.
“Closed loop” is a design direction.
Who makes the system work
Tourism and hospitality businesses prevent avoidable food waste, separate remaining materials, maintain storage quality and participate in collection or service agreements. Their responsibility continues beyond placing material into a labelled container.
Local operators and waste workers inspect, collect, weigh, process and document materials. Their knowledge of contamination, seasonal conditions and processing capacity is part of the system’s technical infrastructure.
Hội An Eco Hub provides a nearby operating base where source-separated organics can be received, checked and matched with appropriate biological pathways. It connects material generators with trained operators, infrastructure, productive uses and learning.
Farmers and land stewards define which inputs are useful, apply them under controlled conditions and observe how soils, plants and production respond. They should not become passive recipients of whatever an organics facility produces.
GYC and its ecosystem partners connect the Working Model across places, organisations and learning. REED contributes technical, intermediary and implementation functions, while GYC supports the longer-term relationships, knowledge and collaboration through which the model can evolve.
The costs of collection, processing, quality control and farm integration cannot be carried by workers and farmers alone. Different pathways may require an appropriate combination of service contributions from material generators, income from useful products and programmes, and public or project investment in shared infrastructure and system development.
One model operating across different places
Since 2014, GYC and its partners have researched and tested ways of returning suitable organic materials from tourism and hospitality to soil and farms. The work has taken place through small practice sites around Hội An and is now being developed through two connected operating contexts.
Hội An Eco Hub — Operating
At Hội An Eco Hub, parts of the organics pathway are operating. The local team works with source-separated materials from tourism businesses and community sources, using biological processes such as black soldier fly systems, controlled microbial processes and composting according to the material and intended output.
The Hub combines material recovery with an urban farm, soil production, plant propagation, operator training and public learning. Some loops can be completed within the site; other outputs need farms, restoration activities or local users elsewhere.
REwild Farm, Gò Nổi — Developing
At REwild Farm, closed-loop practices connect suitable incoming organic materials with biomass generated on-site and within the surrounding rural area.
An agroecology practice area is being developed to explore these relationships at farm scale: how organic materials can support soil life; how crops, useful plants, animals and microorganisms can perform complementary functions; and how production can respond to flood, heat, drought, labour capacity and local food needs.
What community-based organics management has shown
The experience at Hội An Eco Hub shows that organic waste management depends on much more than a treatment technology.
Material generators must separate correctly. Operators need nearby infrastructure, training, equipment and stable income. Farms and other users must be able to absorb the outputs. Local authorities, businesses, social enterprises and communities need clear and complementary responsibilities.
During the 2024–2025 pilot phase, GYC’s operating records report:
- more than 80 tonnes of organic material diverted from landfill;
- nine tonnes of organic fertilisers and soil amendments produced;
- more than 3,000 native and climate-resilient trees grown for local restoration activities.
GYC’s fuller case story, prepared at the request of the Vietnam Environmental and Marine Sciences Institute for a national guidebook on community-based organic waste management, explains the operating lesson: the main barriers lie in collaboration, appropriate local infrastructure, adaptation of technology, markets for outputs and the intermediary organisations that connect these elements. Read the full community-based organic waste management case story.
This Working Model connects material recovery with the living processes that produce food. Community Schools can turn the field practice into shared capability, while responsible tourism and hospitality can contribute materials, demand, participation and finance. Each connection must remain accountable to the needs and capacities of the people and places doing the work.
Work with us
We welcome collaboration with tourism and hospitality businesses seeking an accountable pathway for source-separated organics; farmers and food-system partners interested in developing productive uses and agroecological trials; and researchers, public actors and development partners working on material flows, soil outcomes, community infrastructure and viable local finance.
Discuss a Closed-loop Farming and Agroecology partnership with us.