{"id":58399,"date":"2026-05-06T08:07:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T13:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foodtank.com\/?p=58399"},"modified":"2026-05-06T08:07:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T13:07:54","slug":"food-tank-explains-true-cost-accounting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foodtank.com\/news\/2026\/05\/food-tank-explains-true-cost-accounting\/","title":{"rendered":"Food Tank Explains: True Cost Accounting"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article is part of Food Tank\u2019s primer series, \u201cFood Tank Explains.\u201d Each installment unpacks the ideas, innovations, and challenges shaping today\u2019s food and agriculture systems, offering clear insights into complex topics. To explore more articles in the series, click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Food and agriculture systems generate a variety of environmental, health, social, and economic impacts that are not generally reflected in the prices consumers pay for food, referred to as\u00a0externalities<\/a>\u00a0in economics. True Cost Accounting (TCA) is an evolving, holistic framework for\u00a0measuring and valuing the positive and negative externalities<\/a>\u00a0of the food system.<\/p>\n

TCA seeks to make the impacts of food production, processing, distribution, and consumption more\u00a0visible<\/a>\u00a0to support\u00a0improved decision making<\/a>\u00a0by policymakers, farmers, and consumers and reduce the\u00a0true costs of food<\/a>. Drawing from the\u00a0four-capitals framework<\/a>\u00a0of the TEEBAgriFood Evaluation Framework, TCA assesses four key capitals: natural, human, social, and produced.<\/p>\n

The agrifood system generates\u00a0myriad<\/a>\u00a0positive and negative externalities, says Salman Hussain, Coordinator The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity for Agriculture and Food initiative (TEEBAgriFood).<\/p>\n

Common examples of positive externalities include a beekeeper\u00a0incidentally providing a benefit<\/a>\u00a0to neighboring farmers when their bees pollinate the farmers\u2019 crops and\u00a0community cohesion<\/a>. Examples of\u00a0negative externalities<\/a>\u00a0include emissions from use of fuel in farm machinery, water pollution from fertilizer runoff, and healthcare costs for workers in unsafe conditions.<\/p>\n

Though invisible in market prices, the costs of externalities across agrifood systems are nonetheless borne\u2014just rarely by those who create them. Instead, they are\u00a0passed on<\/a>\u00a0to the environment, workers, consumers, and society more broadly.<\/p>\n

Environmental costs show up in the\u00a030 percent of greenhouse gas emissions<\/a>\u00a0that agriculture produces,\u00a0soil degradation<\/a>, and\u00a0biodiversity loss<\/a>. Workers in food and farming systems face risks like\u00a0pesticide exposure<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0heat-related illness and death<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Consumers bear\u00a0rising rates<\/a>\u00a0of diet-related diseases and issues that are linked to modern food environments.\u00a02.5 billion adults<\/a>\u00a0suffer diet-related illnesses,\u00a0733 million people live in hunger, and 2.8 billion people are unable to afford a healthy diet<\/a>. And these burdens are often\u00a0disproportionately carried by vulnerable populations<\/a>\u00a0who face higher exposure to environmental risks, poor health outcomes, and economic instability.<\/p>\n

The hidden environmental, health, and social costs of global agrifood systems amount to roughly US$12 trillion<\/a> each year, according to a U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report that Lauren Baker, the Deputy Director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, calls a \u201cstartling call to action<\/a>.\u201d A Rockefeller Foundation study<\/a> attributes US$1.1 trillion unaccounted-for costs to human health, US$900 billion to environmental and biodiversity damage, and US$100 billion in unaccounted livelihoods.<\/p>\n

TCA evaluates four forms of capital\u2014natural, human, social, and produced\u2014reflecting the environmental, health, social, and economic dimensions of agrifood systems. The eco-agri-food system is like a puzzle, Alexander M\u00fcller, Study Leader for TEEBAgriFood, tells<\/a> Food Tank. One only understands the full picture when all the pieces are considered together unclear.<\/p>\n

TEEBAgriFood established the four-capital framework in 2018 with contributions from more than\u00a0150 researchers and experts across 30 countries<\/a>. It now underpins\u00a0most<\/a>\u00a0True Cost Accounting assessments used today.<\/p>\n

Natural capital refers to the stock of\u00a0physical and biological resources<\/a>\u00a0and ecosystem functions that sustain life and enable food production. In agriculture, this includes land, water, soil, biodiversity, and atmospheric systems.<\/p>\n

Social capital captures the networks, institutions, and shared norms that enable cooperation and collective action within societies. This can\u00a0include<\/a>\u00a0labor conditions, fair wages, worker protections, community well-being, and the broader social impacts of food production, such as rural livelihoods, job creation or loss, and community stability.<\/p>\n

Human capital\u00a0refers<\/a>\u00a0to individuals\u2019 knowledge, skills, health, and capabilities. This includes farmers\u2019 expertise, agricultural training and education, food system innovation, and the health outcomes associated with both food production and consumption.<\/p>\n

Produced capital includes the manufactured and financial assets that support economic activity. This encompasses physical infrastructure such as buildings, machinery, and irrigation systems, as well as financial and intellectual capital that enable food production, processing, distribution, and retail.<\/p>\n

The goal of TCA is not to increase retail prices, according to Adrian de Groot Ruiz, Co-Founder of True Price, a Dutch social enterprise that helps identify and measure products\u2019 social and environmental costs. Rather, TCA seeks to reveal information that can ultimately help improve the way food is made and reduce the true costs of food, De Groot Ruiz\u00a0tells<\/a>\u00a0Food Tank.<\/p>\n

When externalities go unmeasured, they remain\u00a0unaccounted for<\/a>\u00a0in policy decisions, private purchases and markets fail to prevent or address them. Failing to put a value or price negative impacts \u201ccreates a dishonest pricing scheme and perpetuates farming systems which destroy our planet and cause a catastrophic impact on public health,\u201d\u00a0says<\/a>\u00a0Patrick Holden, Founder and CEO of SFT.<\/p>\n

By identifying and valuing externalities, TCA can help governments, businesses, and investors design\u00a0policies, legislation<\/a>, incentives, and investments that reduce harmful impacts,\u00a0reward practices<\/a>\u00a0that generate public benefits, and support food systems in which nutritious food is accessible,\u00a0workers are compensated fairly, and consumers can make informed choices<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As detailed in FAO\u2019s reports, The State of Food and Agriculture 2023<\/a> and 2024<\/a>, identifying and assessing all hidden costs across agrifood systems is resource- and data-intensive, requiring collaboration between political, economic and social actors and prioritization of the most decision-relevant impacts.<\/p>\n

To be effective, TCA must be incorporated into national and international policy frameworks, accounting standards, and performance evaluation systems, supported by standardized metrics that allow impacts to be measured consistently across food value chains, according to\u00a0government bodies<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0industry experts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some organizations and researchers\u00a0advocate<\/a>\u00a0for policies under which governments tax activities that impose environmental or social harm so market prices reflect their full costs, alongside\u00a0subsidies or incentives<\/a>\u00a0for practices that generate positive externalities such as improved soil health or ecosystem protection. Ultimately, according to\u00a0Nature Food<\/em>, TCA calls for\u00a0a fundamental change to the valuation of food<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? <\/em>Become a member today by clicking here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Ed Wingate, Unsplash<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

True Cost Accounting reveals the hidden costs of food systems\u2014and how they shape health, environment, and equity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5916,"featured_media":58400,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[270,9677,258,5682,327,878,12916,306,267,279],"tags":[13010,13002,1610,2966,976,13009,2062,9742,7132,2183,13008,3204,1103,2679,5471],"class_list":["post-58399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agriculture","category-biodiversity","category-climate-change","category-economics-and-policy","category-farmers","category-food-tank","category-food-tank-explains","category-policy-and-organizing","category-public-health","category-sustainable-agriculture","tag-adrian-de-groot-ruiz","tag-agriculture-emissions","tag-alexander-muller","tag-externalities","tag-food-policy","tag-food-system-costs","tag-global-alliance-for-the-future-of-food","tag-hidden-costs","tag-lauren-baker","tag-rockefeller-foundation","tag-salman-hussain","tag-tca","tag-teebagrifood","tag-true-cost-accounting","tag-true-price"],"yoast_head":"\nFood Tank Explains: True Cost Accounting – Food Tank<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What is True Cost Accounting? 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