{"id":54458,"date":"2024-11-27T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-27T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foodrevolution.org\/?p=54458"},"modified":"2026-09-15T00:49:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T07:49:15","slug":"the-true-cost-of-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foodrevolution.org\/blog\/the-true-cost-of-food\/","title":{"rendered":"The True Cost of Food Is Far Higher Than What You Pay"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Kathleen Merrigan \u2022 Originally published by <\/b>The Conversation<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

After several years of pandemic-driven price spikes at the grocery store<\/a>, retail food price inflation is slowing down<\/a>. That\u2019s good news for consumers, especially low-income households, who spend a proportionally larger share of their income on food<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s more to the cost of food than what we pay at the store. Producing, processing, transporting, and marketing food creates costs throughout the value chain.<\/strong> Many are borne by society as a whole or by communities and regions.<\/p>\n

For example, farm runoff is a top cause of algae blooms and dead zones<\/a> in rivers, lakes, and bays. And food waste<\/a> takes up one-fourth of the space in US landfills, where it rots, generating methane that warms Earth\u2019s climate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Exploring these lesser-known costs is the first step toward reducing them. The key is true cost accounting<\/a>, which examines the economic, environmental, social, and health impacts of food production and consumption to produce a broader picture of its costs and benefits.<\/p>\n

Trillions of Dollars in Uncounted Costs<\/h2>\n
\"Friday
iStock.com\/Colleen Michaels<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Every year since 1947, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has released an important and widely read report called The State of Food and Agriculture<\/a>, known in the food sector as SOFA. SOFA 2023<\/a> examines how much more our food costs beyond what consumers pay at the grocery store.<\/p>\n

Using true cost accounting, the report calculates that the global cost of the agrifood system in 2020 was up to US$12.7 trillion more than consumers paid at retail.<\/strong> That\u2019s equivalent to about 10% of global gross domestic product, or $5 per person per day worldwide.<\/p>\n\n

\n
\n
\n