Strengthening Alliances: how can we work together to mainstream True Cost Accounting?
Rosanna Crawford, TCA Accelerator Outreach and Communications Coordinator
Since the historic Rio Declaration in 1992, successive leaders have signed onto ambitious emissions reduction and environmental goals. Global targets have been set for gender equality, poverty reduction, and to widen access to life-saving healthcare. While there have been some significant wins, overall progress on these collective goals remains elusive.
The negative consequences of the current food system on climate, biodiversity, and health are gaining public attention. A growing chorus of individuals and organizations are advocating the urgent need to transform the food system from one that contributes to rising emissions, biodiversity loss, and poor health outcomes to one that n can reduce emissions, support biodiversity, and deliver healthy, nourishing food emissions as well as improve the lives and livelihoods of farmers, agricultural workers, and all those who work along food supply chains.
On 30 January, we held a Dialogue on Aligning Forces: Using True Cost Accounting to Support Social and Environmental Movements. This Dialogue was part of our True Cost Accounting (TCA) Dialogue Series and Summit, an initiative to dramatically scale implementation of TCA by 2030.
During this event, participants discussed how to support advocates championing approaches to food system interventions that maximize benefits for people and nature. These were the key themes from the discussion:
- Communicating Opportunities for Transformation
- Identifying Strategic Opportunities
- Strengthening Alliances
Communicating Opportunities for Transformation
In 2023, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization published the first of their State of Food and Agriculture reports focused on TCA. This report revealed the hidden costs of the food system to be approximately $10 trillion. Likewise, the Food System Economics Commission’s hidden costs food systems counter estimates accumulated hidden costs (since the Paris Agreement in 2016) at about $136 trillion (and rising). These numbers are quick and compelling statistics that convey the damage caused by the current food system in dollars and cents.
During the Dialogue, a participant shared that they thought a limitation of these big numbers is that they don’t communicate who is ultimately responsible for tackling these costs, and are often not accompanied by specific actions for stakeholders. This led to discussion of a familiar issue, which has recurred through other Dialogues in our Series: the general lack of political will to ensure accountability to the true costs of the food system..
However, another participant disagreed – they thought this lack of political will, and lack of action was a symptom of the confusion around which pathway is best to take.
“My instinct is we do really know what to do to produce nutritious food, shift diets, produce in a more sustainable way…but, I fully recognize that we’re not very good at directing which policy leads to which outcome”.
The provocation to those advocating for food systems transformation is to avoid generic phrases like ‘cut loss and waste’, and provide specific recommendations with expected outcomes. This reflected a conversation in our earlier workshop on Finance and Investment, in which a participant shared that a lack of specificity in investment opportunities was proving a barrier to allocating finance.
Identifying Strategic Opportunities
Selecting strategic opportunities is not just a challenge for policymakers, or those wishing to influence them. In organizations working on the ground for food systems transformation, knowing where to best influence change is an ongoing issue – especially when navigating procurement processes controlled by company monopolies (a symptom of the ‘missing middle’ in food systems).
Another participant shared that, where they lived, influencing formal institutions and policymakers makes little difference to local realities. In this case, grassroots efforts to transform local food systems become essential. “We need to be like mycelia – making underground networks, making action happen despite policy, not thanks to policy”.
Strengthening Alliances
Understanding strategic opportunities, where they lie, and how to communicate them, emerged as key themes in this Dialogue. Participants discussed which alliances and partnerships could make these undertakings more effective.
One suggestion was to forge alliances with individuals and organizations who investigate industry lobbying. They understand how these actors influence policy – and this knowledge of decisionmaking processes and lobbying methods would be valuable for those advocating for a transition to healthy, sustainable, equitable food systems.
Another perspective acknowledged the tendency to look for support and solutions within existing communities and coalitions. However, going forward, it would be more valuable to look outside these organizations and build new professional relationships and partnerships. By forging strategic alliances and working with other movements, important messages can be reinforced, wider audiences reached, and the interconnected nature of food systems transformation better understood.
Next Steps
At the end of the Aligning Forces Dialogue, participants shared they felt excited, fired up, and determined by the conversation.
The final event in our TCA Dialogue Series is taking place on 19 March: A TCA Regional Dialogue for Latin America. If you are interested in participating, please contact Rosanna at rosanna@tcaaccelerator.org.
Insights from the Dialogue Series will inform our upcoming True Cost Accounting Global Summit, and a TCA Action Agenda for 2030 to be launched later this year.
The TCA Global Summit will be hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, in Rome, Italy, on 15-16 April. You can learn more and express interest in attending the TCA Global Summit on our website.
Read insights from other events in the Dialogue Series:
