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Acknowledgment and motion
It introduces the idea of the hidden prices and advantages of agrifood methods, providing a framework via which they are often assessed.
The purpose is to assist choice makers steer international agrifood methods – the entire trade encompassing meals and non-food agricultural manufacturing – in the direction of higher sustainability.
“In the face of escalating international challenges: meals availability, meals accessibility and meals affordability; local weather disaster; biodiversity loss; financial slowdowns and downturns; worsening poverty; and different overlapping crises, the way forward for our agrifood methods hinges on our willingness to understand all meals producers, massive or small, to acknowledge these true prices, and perceive how all of us contribute to them, and what actions we have to take,” said FAO Director-General Dongyu Qu.
Unhealthy diets, emissions and poverty
The report discovered that the greatest hidden prices, greater than 70 p.c, are pushed by unhealthy diets which can be excessive in ultra-processed meals, fat and sugars, resulting in weight problems and non-communicable illnesses, and inflicting labour productiveness losses. This is especially the case in richer nations.
One fifth of the whole prices are environment-related, from greenhouse gasoline and nitrogen emissions, land-use change and water use, with all nations affected.
Meanwhile, low-income nations are proportionately the toughest hit by hidden prices of agrifood methods, which symbolize greater than 1 / 4 of their GDP, in comparison with lower than 12 p.c in middle-income nations and fewer than eight p.c in high-income nations.
Hidden prices related to poverty and undernourishment are additionally essentially the most vital in these nations.
More evaluation wanted
The report requires extra common and detailed evaluation by governments and the personal sector of the hidden or “true” prices of agrifood methods via true value accounting, adopted by motion.
Although there have been earlier makes an attempt at measurement, the FAO report is the primary to disaggregate these prices right down to the nationwide degree and guarantee they’re comparable throughout value classes and between nations.
‘A name to motion’
The UN company will dedicate two consecutive editions of the SOFA report back to the identical theme, marking a primary. The present report presents preliminary estimates, whereas the 2024 version will deal with in-depth focused assessments to determine the perfect methods to mitigate them resembling via taxation, subsidies, and laws.
FAO has urged governments to make use of “true value” accounting to remodel agrifood methods to handle the local weather disaster, poverty, inequality and meals safety, which would require funding and improvements in areas resembling analysis, information assortment and capability constructing.
“I hope that this report will function a name to motion for all companions – from policymakers and private-sector actors to researchers and customers – and encourage a collective dedication to remodel our agrifood methods for the betterment of all,” mentioned Mr. Qu.
