A shift towards a more sustainable global food system could create up to $10 tillion (£7.9tn) of benefits a year, improve human health and ease the climate crisis, according to the most comprehensive economic study of its type.
It found that existing food systems destroyed more value than they created due to hidden environmental and medical costs, in effect, borrowing from the future to take profits today.
Food systems drive a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, putting the world on course for 2.7C of warming by the end of the century. This creates a vicious cycle, as higher temperatures bring more extreme weather and greater damage to harvests.
Food insecurity also puts a burden on medical systems. The study predicted a business-as-usual approach would leave 640 million people underweight by 2050, while obesity would increase by 70%.
Redirecting the food system would be politically challenging but bring huge economic and welfare benefits, said the international team of authors behind the study, which aims to be the food equivalent of the Stern review, the […]
Thanks Stephan. I am an organic produce farmer here in NH and have put together a presentation on the The True Cost of Food this winter. I have been speaking at area libraries and schools in the last few weeks trying to educate people on the realities of our industrial food production system that predominates society in the so-called developed world today. Studies in the last few years have tried to put an economic cost on this destructive system using true cost accounting methods. My presentation exposes many of these hidden costs that both people and planet bear as a result of how we produce and consume ( and throw away! ) much of the food we produce. I think this is a very important and under reported topic so thanks for posting this 🙂