The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 3 billion people globally lack sufficient income to purchase the lowest-cost form of healthy diets recommended by national governments.
But food experts argue that the current price mechanisms used within our food systems do not reflect the true cost of food, as prices are based solely on economic costs and fail to account for the social, environmental, and health impact of food systems.
“It is increasingly argued that a transformation to more sustainable food systems will require changes in food price mechanisms that reflect these costs,” said FAO Chief Economist Máximo Torero Cullen, speaking at the annual Forum for the Future of Agriculture Tuesday. He pointed out that unsustainable agri-food system practices deplete the soil, pollute air and water, reduce biodiversity, and contribute to climate change — and that those environmental impacts, along with the large health cost of unhealthy diets and impacts of social inequalities throughout the system, are not reflected in the price paid for artificial inexpensive food.