Wired reports on how “the United Nations has published a major new tally of the impact the world’s food system has on our health and the planet. According to a report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the total hidden costs of the world’s food system add up to $12.7 trillion dollars—roughly 10 percent of global GDP … Globally, 73 percent of all the hidden costs accounted for by the FAO were associated with diets that led to obesity or non-communicable diseases like diabetes and heart disease. The next biggest impact in monetary terms was to the environment, accounting for more than 20 percent of quantified hidden costs.”
According to the story, “The hidden costs of food systems change dramatically from country to country. In low-income countries, almost half of the hidden costs relate to poverty and may be partly caused by farmers not being able to grow enough food or not being paid a fair price for their products. In these countries, the hidden costs of food amount to an average of 27 percent of GDP, compared with just 8 percent in high-income countries.”
You can read the entire story here.
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