![]() ![]() Many strategies and actions to improve efficiency, for example, may also improve health and inclusiveness. The Food and Land Use Coalition estimated that environmental, health and social costs amounted to at least US$12 trillion a year - larger than the value of the food system’s global output measured at market prices 1.Įconomists can identify synergies among efficiency, sustainability, health and social inclusion goals. The costs need to be internalized through taxation and regulations, so food prices reflect true costs to the environment, climate change and health. Economists can develop methods and metrics to account for the true cost of food systems. Economists can make five key contributions to the analysis of food systems.įood systems have massive externalities and contribute to the violation of most planetary boundaries. Food systems also include the enabling policy environment and cultural norms around food.Įconomics, at its essence, is the analysis of private and public choice under scarcity, including the policies needed to incentivize socially optimal behaviours around healthy consumption and sustainable production of food. Massive externalities on environment, climate change and health are part of food systems. ![]() But food systems are far broader and are defined as the sum of actors, sectors and interactions along the food value chains - R&D, input supply, production, harvesting, storage, transportation, processing, retailing, wholesaling, preparation, consumption and disposal of food. They differ from food value chains, which consist of all the stakeholders in the production of food and value-adding activities. The definition and scope of food systems have evolved over time. ![]() Food systems are both a victim of and a contributor to environmental degradation and climate change, and a cause of many health crises including the triple burden of malnutrition (hunger, micronutrient deficiencies and overweight/obesity), food safety scares and zoonotic pandemics such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. ![]()
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