In Brief to The State of Food and Agriculture 2023 – Revealing the True Cost of Food to Transform Agrifood Systems

This policy brief summarizes the hidden costs of agrifood systems and introduces True Cost Accounting (TCA) as a tool to measure and address them. The FAO’s preliminary TCA assessment of 154 countries estimates that hidden costs amount to over $10 trillion annually, with major contributors being diet-related health costs, environmental degradation, and social inequalities. The report presents a two-phase approach to integrating TCA into policymaking, emphasizing economic valuation, national-level assessments, and targeted interventions. It highlights that low-income countries bear the highest burden of hidden costs, accounting for an average of 27% of GDP, making food system transformation essential for sustainability and equity.