Poor eating habits have a hidden health cost exceeding $8 billion annually, according to estimates by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), which called for “urgent action” to transform the world’s agricultural and food systems.
The organization’s annual report explained that these hidden costs amounting to 8,100 billion arise from losses in labor productivity due to diseases resulting from unhealthy dietary patterns, such as diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and others.
These hidden costs are largely in addition to known health costs, primarily medical expenses, doubling the actual health bill for dietary patterns.
Director of the FAO Agro-Food Economics Department, David Laborde, described the statement that the bill was “doubling” as a “reasonable description of its size.”
The impact of poor dietary patterns on health represents 70% of the total hidden costs of food production, which also generate environmental, social and other costs.
Half of these costs of unhealthy diets are due to diets low in whole grains, the substitution of refined products (a widespread phenomenon with the exception of some African countries or India), low-fruit diets (worldwide), and low-fruit diets. Food rich in salt.
Then come diets rich in processed meats (sausages, cold cuts, etc.), red meat, those low in vegetables, and others.
The report, which covers 153 countries and 99% of the world’s population, indicated that this hidden burden varies according to country, but it could reach 10% of the gross domestic product, especially in some emerging countries.
This estimate constitutes a minimum, because the calculation does not take into account the phenomenon of undernutrition, which is also a costly phenomenon, as confirmed by the Food and Agriculture Organization.
The organization considered that among the required steps were “more ambitious national commitments,” stressing that there is a role for everyone, from the producer to the consumer.
Getting out of the “impasse”
The organization warned of the danger of imposing these changes, especially on farmers who are “on the front line.”
“Increasingly globalized supply chains and power imbalances often place the brunt of change on vulnerable parties, such as producers who suffer increasing regulatory costs and pressures from falling prices,” the report noted.
David Laborde told AFP that these health costs “to societies are hidden, so no one notices them and therefore no one really wants to address this problem.”
He stressed the need to “get out of the current impasse, as the consumer does not want to pay, the processor does not want to pay, and the state says (I have no money), and the tendency is to burden the farmer with these costs.” The direct result will be demonstrations like those witnessed in Europe in the winter. In the past, the number of people wishing to work in this field eventually declined.
The report believed that technological capabilities should be available to agricultural producers, and that they should receive allowances for their services related to the ecosystem, noting that certificates for organic agriculture, fair trade, and others are a tool for improving income.
He also highlighted that “agribusiness and investors have an important role to play.” Consumers also form “the final and vital piece of the picture,” by choosing healthy and sustainably produced foods.
From this standpoint, the report considered that “financial incentives, media campaigns, and legislation contribute to bringing about change, especially for the most vulnerable families,” while “populations in many countries bear the double burden of undernutrition, overweight, or disease.”
The report noted that imposing taxes on sugary drinks or subsidizing fruits and vegetables, for example, lead to “positive results.”
While the organization believed that “the international community can hope that innovation will solve the problems of agricultural food systems,” it stressed that “innovation alone may not achieve sustainability for these systems, as their management must change thanks to political will.”