The recently released Real cost accounting for food: balancing the scales solves the invisible costs of a broken food system.
Real cost accounting for food offers a new way of understanding the social, human, economic and environmental costs of the food system. The book suggests that these costs are not factored into the prices consumers pay for food, and insists that a better food system can result when the true cost of food is reflected in the market.
Edited by Dr Lauren Baker, Paula Daniels and Dr Barbara Gemmill-Herren, the chapters of the book are written by a diverse team of experts, including farmers, lawyers and academics. Authors include Nadia El-Hage Scialabba of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Patrick Holden of the Sustainable Food Trust and Saru Jayaraman of One Fair Wage.
The authors argue that true cost accounting in the food system is important for environmental prosperity, community resilience, and good public health. Publisher Lauren Baker says the book represents a growing awareness of the proper pricing of food and subsidizing agriculture. “Real cost accounting supports a larger movement to view food as a public good,” Baker told Food Tank.
Baker hopes the book will help spur the movement towards “measuring what matters in food systems.” True food cost accounting is often missing from academic literature, Baker notes, so she hopes the book will spark more academic and research interest in the subject.
Real cost accounting for food is aimed at academics, policy makers and professionals working in food systems. Contributors see the book as a powerful resource for changing food systems, offering solutions such as sustainable investment and agricultural subsidy reform. True cost accounting “has the transformative potential to amplify the positive benefits of food systems,” Baker told Food Tank.