The true cost of food: greetings from the future – blog

In times of lockdown, as a young person, sometimes you can feel like you are all alone in the world. Travelling is difficult right now and bars are mostly closed. So who would have thought that on Wednesday, June 16th, 40 young people from all over the world would meet to talk about The True Cost Of Food?

Yet, that is exactly what happened during the dialogue organised by FoodUnfolded (a platform on the origins of our food funded by the EU) and Rikolto (an international NGO with more than 40 years of experience in partnering with farmer organisations and food chain stakeholders across Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America).

Of course, we met online, one of the few good things Covid-19 brought us: big progress in online meetings. But as a young Belgian food professional, I felt connected with my fellow pioneers from various countries in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe.

During the dialogue, we discussed the very important topic ‘The True Cost of Food’, knowing well that the results of our talk are going to be shared with the United Nations and world leaders in New York later this year, for the occasion of the United Nations’ Food Systems Summit.

How important the topic is, became clear right away. During the introduction, the question “Do you think the cost of food today reflects how much we should be paying?” was answered exclusively “no”. If 40 people from all over this world, students, producers or professionals working in NGOs, agri-food businesses and policymaking, answer this question unanimously… you know something has to change.

That is why we mostly searched for answers. The group split up into four small discussion groups where all of us could share our experiences. I participated in the Spanish speaking group. By the way – how awesome is it that the dialogue had both French and Spanish live translation? With Jorge Flores of Rikolto as our facilitator and participants from various countries in Latin America and Spain, the group had a lot of field experience when it comes to helping youth into the driver´s seat...

In our group, we talked about the importance of youngsters as the pioneers in this transition. In other words, the ownership should lie with young people. Furthermore, we discussed how important it is to share the good practices of collaborations of young (grassroots) organisations with the agri-food industry. Here, transparency and evidence of the true costs of the food we produce and buy, are key.

We also focused on the important role the government should play and the hope that local initiative will eventually cause a whirlwind of changes on different levels in the sector, all around the world. Connecting rural and urban youth is an essential part of this transition. Creating generational solidarity between the countryside and the cities will hopefully make the spark skip to other generations as well.. .

Afterwards, we also listened to the solutions other groups came up with. Surprisingly (or not?), not all answers were that different from those we discussed: the importance of governmental support (subsidies) to smaller producers, direct trade between producers and consumers and the importance of a pre-competitive level playing field, educating consumers on the origins of their food, increasing transparency in the food chain... By supporting producers to identify & quantify costs, we can also improve their negotiating position.

Others talked about reducing waste to improve efficiency and reduce costs at the distribution level. Even a tax reform could be a solution (e.g. a reduced VAT for fair trade products). One discussion group also emphasised the importance of multi-stakeholder platforms and a national transversal food policy – that cuts across sectors – to collectively prioritise key issues and identify solutions.

All in all, one thing became clear: a combination of all these solutions together is necessary to create a food system that has respect for the true value of food. To keep food production and consumption sustainable for people and the planet, there is only one way: forward! And it is so very hopeful to feel that together with all these young revolutionaries, all over the world, we will succeed!