The 2024 publication of the State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) report builds on the theme of the true cost of food introduced in 2023. Whilst the 2023 report worked to uncover the true cost of food – from the benefits generated to the hidden costs for environmental, economic and social sustainability – the 2024 report shifts the focus to using this framework to assess agrifood systems and identify policies for transformation.
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The 2024 State of Food and Agriculture Report (SOFA) – Value Driven Transformation of Agrifood Systems – highlights how true cost approaches agrifood systems can identify policies for transformation. The report builds on the recommendations from the 2023 SOFA, entitled ‘Revealing the true cost of food to transform agrifood systems’, to shift from assessment to transformation.
Agrifood systems generate benefits for society, but also have over USD$10 trillion in hidden costs for environmental, social, and economic sustainability globally. Moreover, these costs and benefits are unevenly distributed across society, and transformation must address this distribution.
Core messages include:
- Unhealthy dietary patterns related to non-communicable diseases account for 70 percent of all quantified hidden costs.
- Industrial and diversifying agrifood systems account for the highest global quantified hidden costs.
- Countries in protracted crisis are the most burdened by environmental hidden costs, as a share of their gross domestic product (GDP).
- Food-based dietary guidelines need to take into account dietary patterns high in red meat and sodium to more effectively promote healthy diets that decrease health hidden costs.
- Consumers, supported by financial incentives and education, can influence agrifood systems through their purchasing decisions by choosing products that are sustainably produced and healthy.
- In increasingly global food supply chains, power imbalances often shift the burden of change onto vulnerable parties such as producers, who end up facing higher regulatory costs and downward price pressures.
The True Cost Accounting (TCA) approach used can be a powerful tool for decision making. The report emphasizes that transforming agrifood systems to reduce hidden costs will improve well-being, and that everyone has a role to play in driving agrifood system transformation.
