Download or read book Hidden costs of agrifood systems and recent trends from 2016 to 2023 written by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2023-11-06 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This background paper to The State of Food and Agriculture 2023 examines the annual hidden costs of agrifood systems across 2016–2023 for 154 countries. Hidden costs include environmental hidden costs from greenhouse gas emissions, nitrogen emissions, land-use transitions, and blue water withdrawals; social hidden costs associated with undernourishment and poverty; and health hidden costs from unhealthy dietary patterns. The expected value of hidden costs is around 13 trillion 2020 purchasing power parity (PPP) dollars. This is equivalent to approximately 10 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP) PPP in 2023 and around 35 billion 2020 PPP dollars per day. Environmental hidden costs averaged around 3 trillion 2020 PPP dollars over the 2016–2023 period; health-related costs averaged 9.3 trillion 2020 PPP dollars; and social hidden costs averaged 560 billion 2020 PPP dollars. Health hidden costs are the largest across all world regions, apart from sub-Saharan Africa, where costs from poverty and undernourishment prevail. Hidden costs also report an upward trend from 2016 to 2023, driven primarily by health hidden costs.Overall, hidden costs place a disproportionate burden on low-income countries.Left unchecked, these hidden costs will depress future growth and development. However, these hidden costs do not reflect the GDP PPP loss that may be avoided by transitioning to more sustainable agrifood systems. In other words, while these may be avoidable, the quantified hidden costs do not indicate the costs of transitioning to alternative systems. Subsequent studies are needed to quantify these.

Download or read book The State of Food and Agriculture 2023 written by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2023-11-06 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Agrifood systems generate significant benefits to society, including the food that nourishes us and jobs and livelihoods for over a billion people. However, their negative impacts due to unsustainable business-as-usual activities and practices are contributing to climate change, natural resource degradation and the unaffordability of healthy diets. Addressing these negative impacts is challenging, because people, businesses, governments and other stakeholders lack a complete picture of how their activities affect economic, social and environmental sustainability when they make decisions on a day-to-day basis. The State of Food and Agriculture 2023 looks into the true cost of food for sustainable agrifood systems. The report introduces the concept of hidden environmental, health and social costs and benefits of agrifood systems and proposes an approach – true cost accounting (TCA) – to assess them. To operationalize the TCA approach, the report proposes a two-phase assessment process, first relying on national-level TCA assessments to raise awareness and then moving towards in-depth and targeted evaluations to prioritize solutions and guide transformative actions. It provides a first attempt at national-level assessments for 154 countries, suggesting that global hidden costs from agrifood systems amount to at least to 10 trillion 2020 PPP dollars. The estimates indicate that low-income countries bear the highest burden of the hidden costs of agrifood systems relative to national income. Despite the preliminary nature of these estimates, the analysis reveals the urgent need to factor hidden costs into decision-making for the transformation of agrifood systems. Innovations in research and data, alongside investments in data collection and capacity building, are needed to scale the application of TCA, especially in low- and middle-income countries, so that it can become a viable tool to inform decision- and policymaking in a transparent and consistent way.

Download or read book Accounting for the hidden costs of agrifood systems in data scarce contexts written by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2023-11-06 with total page 62 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This background paper to The State of Food and Agriculture 2023 reviews the methods used, as well as the data required, to estimate the hidden environmental, social and health costs associated with agrifood systems. The studies analysed are based on the true cost accounting approach, which can facilitate improved decision-making by policymakers, businesses, farmers, investors and consumers. The reviewed studies demonstrate that hidden costs of agrifood systems are considerable, and that action is needed at global, national and local levels. To apply true cost accounting at the country level, the methods developed must be downscaled and the data limitations overcome. This review goes through each cost category – environmental, social and health – and proposes approaches to deal with them, with a focus on country-level estimates and analysis, especially in data-scarce countries. Where data are not available or time is limited, methods combining secondary data are suggested. In some cases, the suggestion is to collaborate with research centres.The paper further argues that, when addressing hidden costs in agrifood systems, trade-offs may arise, which may require the use of more complex tools, such as partial and general equilibrium models, to analyse their impacts on different areas. In general, the extent of the compromise will be minimized if there are at least as many policy instruments as there are objectives. For example, if a country seeks to restore fish stocks and address rural poverty, restricting catch alone could increase poverty in the artisanal fishing community. Adding income support, however, could allow both objectives to be met.

Download or read book Food Politics written by Marion Nestle and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2013-05-14 with total page 537 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We all witness, in advertising and on supermarket shelves, the fierce competition for our food dollars. In this engrossing exposé, Marion Nestle goes behind the scenes to reveal how the competition really works and how it affects our health. The abundance of food in the United States--enough calories to meet the needs of every man, woman, and child twice over--has a downside. Our over-efficient food industry must do everything possible to persuade people to eat more--more food, more often, and in larger portions--no matter what it does to waistlines or well-being. Like manufacturing cigarettes or building weapons, making food is big business. Food companies in 2000 generated nearly $900 billion in sales. They have stakeholders to please, shareholders to satisfy, and government regulations to deal with. It is nevertheless shocking to learn precisely how food companies lobby officials, co-opt experts, and expand sales by marketing to children, members of minority groups, and people in developing countries. We learn that the food industry plays politics as well as or better than other industries, not least because so much of its activity takes place outside the public view. Editor of the 1988 Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health, Nestle is uniquely qualified to lead us through the maze of food industry interests and influences. She vividly illustrates food politics in action: watered-down government dietary advice, schools pushing soft drinks, diet supplements promoted as if they were First Amendment rights. When it comes to the mass production and consumption of food, strategic decisions are driven by economics--not science, not common sense, and certainly not health. No wonder most of us are thoroughly confused about what to eat to stay healthy. An accessible and balanced account, Food Politics will forever change the way we respond to food industry marketing practices. By explaining how much the food industry influences government nutrition policies and how cleverly it links its interests to those of nutrition experts, this path-breaking book helps us understand more clearly than ever before what we eat and why.

Download or read book Agriculture Food Systems To 2050 Global Trends Challenges And Opportunities written by Rachid Serraj and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2018-11-08 with total page 680 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book features a comprehensive foresight assessment, exploring the pressures — threats as well as opportunities — on the global agriculture & food systems between now and 2050. The overarching aim is to help readers understand the context, by analyzing global trends and anticipating change for better planning and constructing pathways from the present to the future by focusing on the right questions and problems. The book contextualizes the role of international agricultural research in addressing the complex challenges posed by UN 2030 Agenda and beyond, and identifies the decisions that scientific leaders, donors and policy makers need to take today, and in the years ahead, to ensure that a global population rising to nine billion or more combined with rising incomes and changing diets can be fed sustainably and equitably, in the face of the growing climate threats.

Download or read book A multi billion dollar opportunity Repurposing agricultural support to transform food systems written by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2021-09-14 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Public support mechanisms for agriculture in many cases hinder the transformation towards healthier, more sustainable, equitable, and efficient food systems, thus actively steering us away from meeting the Sustainable Development Goals and targets of the Paris Agreement. This report sets out the compelling case for repurposing harmful agricultural producer support to reverse this situation, by optimizing the use of scarce public resources, strengthening economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, and ultimately driving a food systems transformation that can support global sustainable development commitments. The report provides policymakers with an updated estimate of past and current agricultural producer support for 88 countries, projected up until 2030. The trends emerging from the analysis are a clear call for action at country, regional and global levels to phase out the most distortive, environmentally and socially harmful support, such as price incentives and coupled subsidies, and redirecting it towards investments in public goods and services for agriculture, such as research and development and infrastructure, as well as decoupled fiscal subsidies. Overall, the analysis highlights that, while removing and/or reducing harmful agricultural support is necessary, repurposing initiatives that include measures to minimize policy trade-offs will be needed to ensure a beneficial outcome overall. The report confirms that, while a few countries have started repurposing and reforming agricultural support, broader, deeper, and faster reforms are needed for food systems transformation. Thus, it provides guidance (in six steps) on how governments can repurpose agricultural producer support – and the reforms this will take.

Download or read book Advancing gender equality through agricultural and environmental research Past present and future written by Pyburn, Rhiannon, ed. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2021-11-02 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past decade, interest in gender equality and women’s empowerment has grown rapidly, creating a unique opportunity to institutionalize gender research within agricultural research for development. This book, edited by researchers from the CGIAR Gender Platform, reviews and reflects on the growing body of evidence from gender research. It marks a shift a way from a traditional focus on how gender analysis can contribute to improved productivity, flipping the question to ask, How does agricultural and environmental research and development contribute to gender equality and women’s empowerment? Chapters synthesize the wide range of CGIAR and other research in this area, covering breeding research and seed systems, value chain participation, nutrition-sensitive agriculture, natural resources, climate adaptation and mitigation, the “feminization” of agriculture, women’s role in agricultural research, and emerging gender transformative approaches.

Download or read book True Cost Accounting for Food written by Barbara Gemmill-Herren and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-06-22 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explains how True Cost Accounting is an effective tool we can use to address the pervasive imbalance in our food system. Calls are coming from all quarters that the food system is broken and needs a radical transformation. A system that feeds many yet continues to create both extreme hunger and diet-related diseases, and one which has significant environmental impacts, is not serving the world adequately. This volume argues that True Cost Accounting in our food system can create a framework for a systemic shift. What sounds on the surface like a practice relegated to accountants is ultimately a call for a new lens on the valuation of food and a new relationship with the food we eat, starting with the reform of a system out of balance. From the true cost of corn, rice and water, to incentives for soil health, the chapters economically compare conventional and regenerative, more equitable farming practices in and food system structures, including taking an unflinching look at the true cost of cheap labour. Overall, this volume points towards the potential for our food system to be more human-centred than profit-centred and one that has a more respectful relationship to the planet. It sets forth a path forward based on True Cost Accounting for food. This path seeks to fix our current food metrics, in policy and in practice, by applying a holistic lens that evaluates the actual costs and benefits of different food systems, and the impacts and dependencies between natural systems, human systems, agriculture and food systems. This volume is essential reading for professionals and policymakers involved in developing and reforming the food system, as well as students and scholars working on food policy, food systems and sustainability.

Download or read book Making Better Policies for Food Systems written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2021-01-11 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Food systems around the world face a triple challenge: providing food security and nutrition for a growing global population; supporting livelihoods for those working along the food supply chain; and contributing to environmental sustainability. Better policies hold tremendous promise for making progress in these domains.

Download or read book The Sustainable Chef written by Stefan Gössling and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-12-09 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides the first systematic and accessible text for students of hospitality and the culinary arts that directly addresses how more sustainable restaurants and commercial food services can be achieved. Food systems receive growing attention because they link various sustainability dimensions. Restaurants are at the heart of these developments, and their decisions to purchase regional foods, or to prepare menus that are healthier and less environmentally problematic, have great influence on food production processes. This book is systematically designed around understanding the inputs and outputs of the commercial kitchen as well as what happens in the restaurant from the perspective of operators, staff and the consumer. The book considers different management approaches and further looks at the role of restaurants, chefs and staff in the wider community and the positive contributions that commercial kitchens can make to promoting sustainable food ways. Case studies from all over the world illustrate the tools and techniques helping to meet environmental and economic bottom lines. This will be essential reading for all students of hospitality and the culinary arts.

Download or read book Renewable energy for agri food systems Towards the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement written by International Renewable Energy Agency and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2021-11-03 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2021, the United Nations Secretary-General will convene the Food Systems Summit to advance dialogue and action towards transforming the way the world produces, consumes and thinks about food guided by the overarching vision of a fairer, more sustainable world. The Secretary-General will also convene the High-Level Dialogue on Energy (HLDE) to promote the implementation of the energy-related goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Given the inextricable linkages between the energy and agriculture sectors, integrating the nexus perspective within the FSS and the HLDE is crucial to formulate a joint vision of actions to advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement. In this context, IRENA and FAO have decided to jointly develop a report on the role of renewable energy used in food chain to advance energy and food security as well as climate action towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement. While energy has a key enabling role in food system transformation and innovation in agriculture, its current use is unsustainable because of the high dependence on fossil fuels and frequent access to energy in developing countries. The challenge is to disconnect fossil fuel use from food system transformation without hampering food security. The use of renewable energy in food systems offers vast opportunities to address this challenge and help food systems meet their energy needs while advancing rural development while contributing to rural development and climate action.

Download or read book Livestock s Long Shadow written by Henning Steinfeld and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2006 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The assessment builds on the work of the Livestock, Environment and Development (LEAD) Initiative"--Pref.

Download or read book Corporate Power in Global Agrifood Governance written by Jennifer Clapp and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: food aid policy to governance in the seed industry and international food safety standards.

Download or read book Sustainable Food Supply Chains written by Riccardo Accorsi and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2019-06-12 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sustainable Food Supply Chains: Planning, Design, and Control through Interdisciplinary Methodologies provides integrated and practicable solutions that aid planners and entrepreneurs in the design and optimization of food production-distribution systems and operations and drives change toward sustainable food ecosystems. With synthesized coverage of the academic literature, this book integrates the quantitative models and tools that address each step of food supply chain operations to provide readers with easy access to support-decision quantitative and practicable methods. Broken into three parts, the book begins with an introduction and problem statement. The second part presents quantitative models and tools as an integrated framework for the food supply chain system and operations design. The book concludes with the presentation of case studies and applications focused on specific food chains. Sustainable Food Supply Chains: Planning, Design, and Control through Interdisciplinary Methodologies will be an indispensable resource for food scientists, practitioners and graduate students studying food systems and other related disciplines. Contains quantitative models and tools that address the interconnected areas of the food supply chain Synthesizes academic literature related to sustainable food supply chains Deals with interdisciplinary fields of research (Industrial Systems Engineering, Food Science, Packaging Science, Decision Science, Logistics and Facility Management, Supply Chain Management, Agriculture and Land-use Planning) that dominate food supply chain systems and operations Includes case studies and applications

Download or read book The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2019 written by Food and Agriculture Organization and published by United Nations. This book was released on 2019-07-15 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World gives updates on the prevalence of undernourishment globally and the absolute number of undernourished, as well as the latest estimates for a number of global nutrition targets. This latest edition looks at the role of economic slowdowns and downturns in the rise of hunger and makes policy recommendations to safeguard food security and nutrition worldwide.

Download or read book The State of Food and Agriculture 2013 written by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and published by Fao. This book was released on 2013-07-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Malnutrition -- in the form of undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and overweight and obesity -- imposes unacceptably high economic and social costs on countries at all income levels. The causes of malnutrition are complex, yet all forms of malnutrition share one common feature: nutritionally inappropriate diets. The State of Food and Agriculture 2013 makes the case that healthy diets and good nutrition begin with food and agriculture.

Download or read book Aquaponics Food Production Systems written by Simon Goddek and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-06-21 with total page 620 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book, written by world experts in aquaponics and related technologies, provides the authoritative and comprehensive overview of the key aquaculture and hydroponic and other integrated systems, socio-economic and environmental aspects. Aquaponic systems, which combine aquaculture and vegetable food production offer alternative technology solutions for a world that is increasingly under stress through population growth, urbanisation, water shortages, land and soil degradation, environmental pollution, world hunger and climate change.