True Cost Accounting Comes of Age in Rome

In April 2025, in an auditorium nestled in the austere, labyrinthian halls of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s headquarters in Rome, a group of 170 researchers, investors, business leaders, advocates, philanthropists, and policymakers, from every continent except Antarctica, gathered for two days in pursuit of an ambitious goal: that the global food system clean up its act — or at least reveal its hidden costs to society — by 2030.