Overhauling global food production and consumption practices could yield trillions in annual benefits, addressing hidden costs that currently amount to approximately 12 percent of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) annually, as per a recent report released on Monday.
Conducted by a collaborative team of scientists and economists, the research highlights the detrimental impacts of current food systems on both public health and the environment. The findings suggest that transforming global food systems has the potential to avert 174 million premature deaths, facilitate the achievement of climate goals, and generate economic benefits ranging between $5 trillion to $10 trillion.
While intensive food production has played a pivotal role in sustaining a global population that has doubled since the 1970s, the report underscores the associated costs on human well-being and the planet. The consequences include adverse health effects stemming from poor diets leading to obesity or undernutrition, as well as environmentally damaging farming practices contributing to global warming and biodiversity loss. Such impacts could, in turn, pose a significant threat to global food production capabilities.
Vera Songwe, an economist associated with the Africa Growth Initiative at the Brookings Institution and a member of the Food System Economics Commission (FSEC), which authored the report, remarked, “We have an amazing food system, but it has come at a considerable cost to the environment, people’s health, and our future economics.”
The researchers estimate the total underestimated costs related to current food systems to be up to $15 trillion annually. This figure encompasses approximately $11 trillion each year attributed to productivity losses caused by food-related illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension, and cancer. Moreover, environmental costs are assessed at $3 trillion, stemming from existing agricultural land use and current food production methods, accounting for a third of the greenhouse gas emissions contributing to global warming.
