Rosanna Crawford, TCA Accelerator Outreach and Communications Coordinator

The body of TCA case studies grows each year. These studies have demonstrated food systems’ hidden costs to people and nature, and illuminated a series of staggering numbers of the ‘true cost’ of food systems: $12 trillion per year according to FAO’s latest State of Food and Agriculture report. 

However, simply measuring costs and benefits will not transform food systems. To achieve TCA’s potential, advocates for food systems change must move from knowledge to action — whether influencing policy, business, investment, farming, or consumer decisions.

For this last Dialogue in our series, we brought together a group of individuals dedicated to food systems transformation, to discuss how we can better communicate and advocate for the mainstreaming of True Cost Accounting. 

This conversation focused on these key themes:

• Who is at the Center of the Story?
• Flipping the Narrative
• Change is Already Happening  
• Building Credibility

 

The Center of the Story
Food systems conversations are often dominated by agribusinesses, governments, lobbyists, and investors, according to one workshop participant. The challenges facing farmers and food producers are misunderstood or unacknowledged, with many farmers experiencing poverty, poor mental health, and social isolation.

Workshop participants shared the work they are doing to address this power imbalance. One organization aims to ensure that ‘farmer voices are at the center of what we are doing and how we are doing it’. Another participant collects best practice on how companies can engage and support small-scale producers. 

In this discussion about centring farmer voices, the group was reminded that as well as more ‘hands on’ support, recognition of traditional livelihoods around the world is essential. “In this accounting, let’s make sure that we value and recognize women’s work, fisherfolk, migrant farm workers – what gets counted gets reported, and what gets valued gets remembered.” 

Flipping the Narrative
Since the advent of the Green Revolution post-World War II, a singular focus on increasing yield has persisted among agrifood decision-makers as the solution for addressing food insecurity. Although the significant harms to people and the planet  from this approach grow ever clearer, the narrative persists that such costs are a necessary trade-off and that no viable alternatives exist to feed a hungry world – perhaps best exemplified by a recent Opinion piece in the New York Times, “Sorry, but this is the future of food”.

One workshop participant was experiencing the effects of this persistent narrative directly, sharing the challenge of communicating the benefits of organic or natural farming through TCA studies. Although organic shows better results across the four capitals, they argued, conventional yield is often slightly higher. If yield is all that matters, it is harder to make the case for alternative farming methods that show better outcomes for human and planetary health. 

However, another participant described the widespread belief in industrial agriculture’s sole ability to meet the world’s food needs as a ‘zombie argument’ – “it’s been refuted a million times, but it’s still gaining power”. Focusing on yield through industrial agriculture is simple, it’s well-established, and participants shared a common feeling that food systems transformation advocates hadn’t “lined up with a unified voice on the simple story that can reframe this argument”. 

Flipping this narrative will be difficult: a more simplified message needs to also encapsulate the complexity of food systems. It is once again useful to consider who is at the center of the story. If the current status quo can extol the benefits of industrial agriculture, advocates for transformation need to platform voices of those who pay the price of these approaches: people and communities affected by agricultural pollution, farmers trapped in debt, and the rise of non-communicable diseases due to unhealthy diets. TCA can help make this case, demonstrating the overlooked benefits that alternative approaches can deliver for people and nature, while meeting food security goals.

Change is Already Happening
Flipping the narrative doesn’t mean only focusing on the negative effects of the current food system. When talking about the food system and climate change, it’s easy to fall into the trap of startling audiences with shocking statistics and stories. However, this does not give people a sense of hope, or motivation to act. 

Telling stories of change already happening – whether in local procurement for school meals, farmers restoring nature or gaining access to renewable energy – will make food systems transformation seem possible. True Cost Accounting reveals these benefits, and can showcase tangible actions for change. 

This connects to our previous Dialogue on Aligning Forces, during which a participant highlighted the importance of communicating specific actions that stakeholders can take, instead of relying on broadbrush phrases like ‘cut loss and waste’. 

Building Credibility
For a narrative to be effective, it also has to be credible. Policymakers and businesses usually want hard data to justify action, but providing this data can be a challenge, especially for smaller farms and farmers in the Global South. Data collection is costly, as are data validation services (a familiar issue in our Dialogue Series). 

Greenwashing and misinformation around sustainable diets and regenerative farming further delay real action. As one participant said, “any communication strategy needs to think five steps ahead of greenwashing” and what it means for different stakeholders along the supply chain. 

TCA can bring transparency to issues of greenwashing, and another participant highlighted the importance of participatory guarantee systems for data validation –  which has been raised in other Dialogues as a tool for bringing down its cost. 

A key aspect of credibility is context. When thinking about crafting a compelling, unified narrative on food systems transformation, it’s essential to remember that food systems conversations and debates are grounded in widely varying local, national, and regional realities. 

“Agriculture is so place- and people-based in that individual location, but [the narrative] has to be connected and in unison with what’s happening globally for the biggest change”. 

Next Steps
Our participants were more than willing to dive into the hard problems facing communicators and advocates for food systems transformation. At the end of the Dialogue, they shared they felt inspired, connected, stimulated and energized. 

Thank you to everyone who took part in our Communications and Advocacy Dialogue, and thank you to our co-leads, Urvashi Rangan and Tom Philpott.

Our Dialogue Series has now almost come to an end. You can read the other blog posts from the different workshops here:

• Global Policy and Action
• True Cost Accounting Evaluations
• True Cost Accounting and the Private Sector 
• Finance and Investment
• Aligning Forces: Using True Cost Accounting to Support Social and Environmental Movements 

 

The TCA Accelerator team is busy reviewing the findings from the Dialogue Series as inputs for our upcoming TCA Summit, as well as the forthcoming Action Agenda to mainstream TCA by 2030. We will be launching a public consultation on the Action Agenda at the end of May, so everyone in the TCA community will have a chance to give feedback and contribute. 

Scaling Implementation: A True Cost Accounting Global Summit
The deadline for expressions of interest and registration for the TCA Summit has been extended to April 1. The Summit will be hosted by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, Italy on 15-16 March. This is a unique opportunity to meet with other global leaders, and work together to identify priority actions for scaling TCA and transforming food systems by 2030. Visit our website to learn more: https://summit.tcaaccelerator.org/