Description
Book SynopsisThe current industrial food system comes at a tremendous economic cost. Dealing with malnutrition, diseases, and environmental degradation costs trillions of dollars, but because that price tag does not show up at the grocery store, it is too often ignored by economists and policymakers. The Economics of Sustainable Food details the true cost of food and illustrates how to transform our broken system, alleviating its severe financial and human burden. The key is smart macroeconomic policy that moves us toward regenerative agriculture and sustainable, healthy diets. The book’s multidisciplinary team of authors lay out detailed fiscal and trade policies, as well as structural reforms, to achieve those goals. Chapters discuss strategies ranging from taxes and spending to education, labour market, health care, and pension reforms, alongside regulation in cases where market incentives are unlikely to work or to work fast enough. The authors carefully consider the different needs of more and less advanced economies, balancing economic development and sustainability goals. Case studies showcase successful strategies from around the world, such as distributing climate resilient grains through subsidised food programmes, taxing foods with a high carbon footprint, and providing schools with matching funds to purchase local produce. In the years ahead, few issues will be more important for individual prosperity and the global economy than the way we produce our food and what food we eat. This roadmap for reform is an invaluable resource to help global policymakers improve countless lives.
Table of ContentsPreface, Nicoletta Batini Chapter 1. We Depend on Food, Food Depends on Nature, Nicoletta Batini Part I. Greening Food Supply Chapter 2. Greening Food Supply in Advanced Economies, Nicoletta Batini and Philippe Pointereau Chapter 3. Greening Food Supply in Less-Advanced Economies, Ruth De Fries Chapter 4. Sustainable Farming Trends a. Small and Polyfunctional Farming, John Ikerd, Patty Cantrell, Hanna Wernerson b. Urban and Vertical Farming (Controlled Environment Farming), Dickson Despommier and Charles Knirsch c. Restorative Ocean Farming, Nicoletta Batini, Ayana E. Johnson, Bren Smith d. Alternative Protein Farming, Bruce Friedrich and Stephen Kaufman Part II. Greening Food Demand Chapter 5. Greening Food Demand in Advanced Economies, Nicoletta Batini and Luigi Fontana Chapter 6. Greening Food Demand in Less-Advanced Economies, Divya Mehra, Saskia de Pee, Jessica C. Fanzo, Martin W. Bloem Part III. Greening Food Waste Chapter 7. Eliminating Food Waste, Emilie Cassou, Lucia Patricia Avila Bedregal, Catherine « Simmy » Jain, Dipti Thapa, Geeta Sethi, Xiaoyue Hou, Luis Constantino Part IV. Conserving Land and Sea to Support Food Security Chapter 8. Conserving Land and Forests, Nicoletta Batini Chapter 9. Conserving Oceans, Nicoletta Batini and Rodolfo Werner Chapter 10. Conserving Mammals, Ivon Cuadros and Carlo Rondinini Chapter 11. Conserving Insects, Michael J. Samways, Pedro Cardoso and Charl Deacon Chapter 12. Conclusions Acknowledgments Contributors Index
