Our economic system - particularly business accounting processes do not (yet) include a mechanism for recognizing the invisible value of people and nature. True Cost Accounting provides a method for including these values in business internal decision-making metrics and processes as well as reporting to financial markets. In today's operating environment, business more than ever needs to demonstrate a purpose beyond maximizing financial value creation for shareholders. This purpose should include generating social, human, and natural capital value for all stakeholders. - Peter Bakker, President and CEO, World Business Council for Sustainable Development
True Cost Accounting for Food provides in-depth analysis of the environmental, health, and social costs of food systems that are rarely captured in the price of food today. This valuable collection breaks new ground and offers important insights into how these externalities can be better accounted for in ways that contribute toward positive change in food systems. - Jennifer Clapp, Professor and Canada Research Chair, University of Waterloo
True Cost Accounting is the starting point for any serious conversation about reforming food systems. This is no coincidence: prices shall continue to lie, until social costs are incorporated and set the right incentives to guide the choices of both producers and consumers. This book provides therefore more than a state of play: it's an essential tool for future advocacy efforts. - Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights and Co-chair, International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food)
Those who wish to help move the world towards a sustainable planet and offer the next generation a chance to enjoy the wonders of its biodiversity and benefit from its ecosystem services should embrace the tools and lessons from this book to help transform our food systems from farm to plate. - Braulio Dias, Associate Professor of Ecology at the University of Brasilia and Former Executive Secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity
This book addresses a critically important topic: the need to open up the 'hidden costs' of current food systems. This compelling need is not being adequately considered by dominant policy makers or mainstream thinkers in the agriculture sector and food industry. The present volume serves to illuminate the issue from multiple perspectives and can serve to inform international negotiations on food systems, agroecology and biodiversity for more comprehensive policies. - Mohammad Hossein Emadi, PhD, Former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Iran to FAO, WFP and IFAD and Chair of the UN Committee on Agriculture
The vision and core tenets of the Land and Justice Party I founded in Vanuatu in 2010 are in the principles behind True Cost Accounting in Food. This book will make a significant contribution to the international discourse needed to advance a just transformation of our food system, which reaches beyond monetary dimensions to include measures of progress for the social, cultural and environmental dimensions of life. - Ralph Regenvanu, Member of Parliament and President of the Land and Justice Party, Vanuatu
Since 2012, we have been committed to advancing True Cost Accounting (TCA) as a powerful tool for food systems transformation. In that time, TCA has evolved from a radical concept to a scientifically validated approach, driving policies and practices that create and sustain healthy, equitable, and resilient food systems. With this new book in hand, governments, farmers, corporations, investors, and others, can break away from the status quo and use TCA to make better decisions about the future of food. - Ruth Richardson, Executive Director, Global Alliance for the Future of Food
It is more than time that we rebalance the scales, making the cultivation of biodiversity and the consequent health of soils, plants, and people as the organizing principle of our food systems. This book offers many perspectives on how a genuinely honest valuation of the contribution of people and nature can bring about such changes. - Vandana Shiva, Navdanya International
Our food systems are not delivering the social, environment and nutritional outcomes we need to enable human prosperity. True Cost Accounting is one of the critical capabilities we need to build food systems that are equitable, healthy, and sustainable. By developing this capability our policy and legislative decision makers can help create the food system we all desire and deserve. This book creates the foundation for that work and is an important first step on that path. - Dr. Roy Steiner, Senior Vice President of Food at the Rockefeller Foundation
This book is a must-read for anyone interested in how to fix our food systems. We can only manage what we measure and this inspiring and instructive collection of examples informs how we, as a global community, can advance this crucial work. - Pavan Sukhdev, lead author of the United Nations report on TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems & Biodiversity), CEO of GIST Impact, and President of WWF International
Our economic system - particularly business accounting processes do not (yet) include a mechanism for recognizing the invisible value of people and nature. True Cost Accounting provides a method for including these values in business internal decision-making metrics and processes as well as reporting to financial markets. In today's operating environment, business more than ever needs to demonstrate a purpose beyond maximizing financial value creation for shareholders. This purpose should include generating social, human, and natural capital value for all stakeholders. - Peter Bakker, President and CEO, World Business Council for Sustainable Development
True Cost Accounting for Food provides in-depth analysis of the environmental, health, and social costs of food systems that are rarely captured in the price of food today. This valuable collection breaks new ground and offers important insights into how these externalities can be better accounted for in ways that contribute toward positive change in food systems. - Jennifer Clapp, Professor and Canada Research Chair, University of Waterloo
True Cost Accounting is the starting point for any serious conversation about reforming food systems. This is no coincidence: prices shall continue to lie, until social costs are incorporated and set the right incentives to guide the choices of both producers and consumers. This book provides therefore more than a state of play: it's an essential tool for future advocacy efforts. - Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights and Co-chair, International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food)
Those who wish to help move the world towards a sustainable planet and offer the next generation a chance to enjoy the wonders of its biodiversity and benefit from its ecosystem services should embrace the tools and lessons from this book to help transform our food systems from farm to plate. - Braulio Dias, Associate Professor of Ecology at the University of Brasilia and Former Executive Secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity
This book addresses a critically important topic: the need to open up the 'hidden costs' of current food systems. This compelling need is not being adequately considered by dominant policy makers or mainstream thinkers in the agriculture sector and food industry. The present volume serves to illuminate the issue from multiple perspectives and can serve to inform international negotiations on food systems, agroecology and biodiversity for more comprehensive policies. - Mohammad Hossein Emadi, PhD, Former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Iran to FAO, WFP and IFAD and Chair of the UN Committee on Agriculture
The vision and core tenets of the Land and Justice Party I founded in Vanuatu in 2010 are in the principles behind True Cost Accounting in Food. This book will make a significant contribution to the international discourse needed to advance a just transformation of our food system, which reaches beyond monetary dimensions to include measures of progress for the social, cultural and environmental dimensions of life. - Ralph Regenvanu, Member of Parliament and President of the Land and Justice Party, Vanuatu
Since 2012, we have been committed to advancing True Cost Accounting (TCA) as a powerful tool for food systems transformation. In that time, TCA has evolved from a radical concept to a scientifically validated approach, driving policies and practices that create and sustain healthy, equitable, and resilient food systems. With this new book in hand, governments, farmers, corporations, investors, and others, can break away from the status quo and use TCA to make better decisions about the future of food. - Ruth Richardson, Executive Director, Global Alliance for the Future of Food
It is more than time that we rebalance the scales, making the cultivation of biodiversity and the consequent health of soils, plants, and people as the organizing principle of our food systems. This book offers many perspectives on how a genuinely honest valuation of the contribution of people and nature can bring about such changes. - Vandana Shiva, Navdanya International
Our food systems are not delivering the social, environment and nutritional outcomes we need to enable human prosperity. True Cost Accounting is one of the critical capabilities we need to build food systems that are equitable, healthy, and sustainable. By developing this capability our policy and legislative decision makers can help create the food system we all desire and deserve. This book creates the foundation for that work and is an important first step on that path. - Dr. Roy Steiner, Senior Vice President of Food at the Rockefeller Foundation
This book is a must-read for anyone interested in how to fix our food systems. We can only manage what we measure and this inspiring and instructive collection of examples informs how we, as a global community, can advance this crucial work. - Pavan Sukhdev, lead author of the United Nations report on TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems & Biodiversity), CEO of GIST Impact, and President of WWF International
