One of the main challenges for modern agriculture is closing nutrient cycles better since nutrient deficits as well as nutrient surpluses can cause severe ecological issues. Current efforts to improve nutrient management are mainly focused on the farm level. However, closing nutrient cycles is not only a farm management issue, but also a policy issue. Here the farm should be considered in interaction with other scale levels: regional, national, and international. To develop effective policy interventions a thorough understanding of this complex system and the effects of the policy interventions is needed. The Nutrient Cycle Assessment Tool (NCAT) was developed as a tool to perform ex ante evaluations of policy interventions aimed at closing nutrient cycles in agriculture. To contribute to meaningful change, active involvement of stakeholders in applying the NCAT is essential. This article describes the design of the NCAT, and explains why and how complexity and joint learning, single and double loop learning, and systems thinking approaches are used as the key elements of the design. The NCAT focuses on facts and stimulates participants to postpone value judgements. A case study indicated that the tool provided stakeholders with clear insights in the potential effects of policy interventions. Applying the NCAT can lead to shared and enhanced understanding of the effects and consequences of an intervention among participating stakeholders, which is an important prerequisite when developing implementable and supported policy decisions. Observations and evaluation interviews indicate that this process stimulates cognitive learning as well as relational learning. By reflecting on the case study and the resulting insights, the scientific status of the results from using the NCAT is discussed, as well as its value for policy processes.

Reflexive Interactive Design (RIO) is an approach that aims to contribute to a transition towards more sustainable animal production systems. In this chapter three projects that use the RIO approach are evaluated: Pork Opportunities (pigs), Broilers with Taste (broilers) and New Livestock Husbandry (covering all sectors). In the evaluation, there is a specific focus on niche development and the interaction with the regime. The chapter shows the role of articulation of promises, building networks and learning in these projects, and in what way these led to shielding, nurturing and empowerment. All projects were successful in igniting and facilitating niche development, but to varying degrees and using different strategies. Until the time of writing (early 2015), no global niches were developed, but several local niches, that stem from these projects, are still in the process of shielding and nurturing. Although they are not powerful enough (yet) to compete with the regime, they slowly increase their potential to do so in the future. The analysis shows that the success of RIO can be equally attributed to its three essential aspects: design, interaction and reflexivity.

The Nutrient Cycle Assessment aims at visualizing nutrient flows. In policy documents closing of nutrient cycles at the level of North Western Europe is often mentioned. Province North Brabant, farmers organisation ZLTO and NGO BMF examined together with Wageningen University & Research the effects of closing the borders of North West Europe (Benelux, France, Germany, UK) for feed ingredients and animal products. The results of this exercise were discussed in a separate session with representatives of the feed industry. This report describes the conclusions of the analysis and the lessons that can be learned from this exercise for future work with the Nutrient Cycle Assessment.

The Nutrient Cycle Assessment aims at visualizing nutrient flows. Commissioned by the Ministries of I&M and Economic Affairs and the Dutch Organisation of Feed Research a Nutrient Cycle Assessment was carried out for manure processing. It appeared that a case with market pull on the market for animal manure (artificial fertilizer is not allowed any more) inspires the participants much more to analyse the effects of such an intervention than when the intervention pushes animal manure in the market (all pig manure has to be processed). This report describes the conclusions of the analysis and the lessons that can be learned from this exercise for future work with the Nutrient Cycle Assessment.

This paper analyses the combination of a method to design new sustainable animal husbandry systems by the name of RIO with efforts to stimulate the uptake of these new designs in practice. Over the past 15 years, this approach has been applied in a variety of animal production sectors in the Netherlands, two of which will be analysed here, one for broilers (chickens for meat) and one for pigs. To analyse the uptake process we build on the concept of anchoring that describes how a novelty becomes newly connected, connected in a new way, or connected more firmly to a niche or a regime. In the literature, three forms of anchoring are distinguished, notably technological, network and institutional anchoring. In this paper we seek to develop this general conceptualisation further to understand the dynamics of anchoring processes. On the basis of the cases analysed we conclude that to make technological anchoring more robust, a process takes place that we have called the ‘specification of technology’. Furthermore, we distinguish two patterns in institutional anchoring, one in which the technology adapts to existing institutions and one in which new institutions are adapted to fit the developing novelty. This latter process seems to be key in transition processes to develop ‘integrally sustainable’ solutions.