About the article: Ingrid Feeny provides another participant-observation of an alternative economy in practice. The Plant is designed to “close the loop” on urban food production in a South Chicago neighbourhood. A zero waste philosophy plays a central role in practices as by-products of one set of food production activities and even the renovation of the building itself are used as raw materials in another process—the material modus operandi of a closed loop economy. However, Feeny calls The Plant a “chimera of non‐instrumental economic practices including community economy, social economy, and social enterprise which attempt to transcend capitalism and yet exists within and alongside it.” How far can examples of degrowth inside of growth-based systems go? Can they be piecemeal, or incomplete, or compromised and still offer a viable economic politic? This final piece in the special collection leaves us with questions about what happens to politics and imaginaries where practice and theory meets, as essential set of questions for moving forward with the project of degrowth and diverse economies.