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The True Cost of Our Food Choices

Wednesday, 6 May 2015 20:34 GMT

* Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The food we consume every day has a big impact on our waistlines, healthcare, and the environment. Aligning the prices of food and beverages to their actual cost might be the push we need to start making better choices. Last November, Berkeley approved the nation’s first soda tax. The one-cent-per-ounce tax on sugar-sweetened beverages is expected to help bring down the consumption of sodas and the incidence of obesity, diabetes, hypertension and heart disease.

Another way to make healthier food options more affordable, while making unhealthy choices, more expensive is through True Cost Accounting. To transition towards a healthier and more sustainable food system, the U.S. Dietary Guidelines 2015, currently under review, should factor in the true cost of food.

The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC), a panel of experts in the field of nutrition and health, recently submitted their advisory report to the federal government. Their suggestions were clear: it’s time eaters, farmers, businesses, public health advocates and policy makers consider the impacts of the food we eat.

The DGAC report states: “Current evidence shows that the average U.S. diet has a larger environmental impact in terms of increased greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water use, and energy use.”

According to the Sustainable Food Trust, these externalized costs can be calculated. Industrially produced food is highly dependent on inputs such as petrol, pesticides, fertilizers, antibiotics and cheap labor. These foods aren’t good for our bodies or the environment, yet they’re some of the cheapest products on our shelves today. Funding and donor groups like the Global Alliance for the Future of Food have been investing in strategies to create awareness about the true cost of cheap food.

The DGAC report recommends that people should eat more plant-based foods, decrease meat consumption and choose seafood from non-threatened stocks.  This makes sense: the foods we are advised to eat in greater quantities, such as fruits and vegetables, are healthier and have the lowest environmental impacts According to the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition’s Double Pyramid, foods that are better for our bodies are also better for environmental health.

The Dietary Guidelines shape federal nutrition policy, education initiatives and food assistance programs. If the Guidelines adopt the principles of true food accounting, the federal government could implement policies to penalize damaging practices and reward those that deliver positive environmental and public health outcomes.

The U.S. isn’t the first country to implement soda taxes -- Mexico introduced a soda tax in 2014, France introduced one in 2012. Finland and Hungary have taxed soft drinks and candies since 2011. And in 2014, Brazil adopted dietary guidelines that went well beyond nutrient and calorie recommendations. It emphasized the importance of cooking, family meals, and whole foods, and stated that the consumption of processed foods damaged “culture, social life, and the environment.”

In the Netherlands, the Guidelines for a Healthy Diet: The Ecological Perspective focuses on both health and ecological benefits. Sweden’s Nordic Nutrition Recommendations emphasize the environmental impact of diets, and the German Dietary Guidelines include a “sustainable shopping basket” to help consumers shop in a more environmentally conscious way.

Just like soda taxes, implementing true cost accounting can discourage food systems that have a damaging impact on public health, improve people's diet, and accelerate the transition to a more sustainable food system

Dietary guidelines that include sustainability will help consumers realize that long-term individual health and food system sustainability are inseparable. The U.S. government must marshal in change by accounting for the true cost of food in the 2015 Dietary Guidelines. We need to prioritize long-term benefits over short-term savings. The cost of cheap food is far too high.

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