This month’s Community Insights interview features the TRUE FOOD initiative in Brazil, founded by Andressa de Mello and Estevan Sartoreli.
Last November, TCA Accelerator Director, Jenn Yates, joined the True Food team for a visit to farms using three models of cacao production in the Brazilian state of Bahia, gaining a first-hand look at the trade-offs, market pressures, and sustainability initiatives of the local and global chocolate industry.
Cacao is just one of the commodities True Food is working to assess in coming years. Read on to learn how True Food is exposing and communicating the cost of inaction and the value of more sustainable production systems.
Estevan Sartoreli, co-founder of TRUE FOOD shared his insights with us.
Can you share an overview of TRUE FOOD, how it started and what your core objectives are?
TRUE FOOD is a Brazil-based initiative co-founded by Estevan Sartoreli and Andressa de Mello to address the disconnect between food system narratives and the lived realities of producers, consumers, and ecosystems guardians. It emerged from our shared belief that market dynamics can be more just — and that data, when rooted in local contexts, can drive real change and foster sustainable agriculture.
We bring together local producers, researchers, impact leaders and global institutions to uncover and communicate the true cost and true value of food in Brazil. Our core objective is to build tools and insights that make it possible to reward high-quality, low-impact production in strategic biomes, while enabling better decisions by consumers, policymakers, and companies.
You’re going to be examining Brazil’s main commodities. How are you planning to engage these industries on hidden costs?
We are starting by deeply investigating one key crop – cacao – as an entry point to understanding broader agricultural systems in Brazil. Our approach is grounded in data, dialogue and fieldwork: we engage with producers, cooperatives, buyers, and local institutions to understand real production dynamics, costs, and trade-offs.
Instead of blaming industries, we invite them to join a learning journey. Many players want to do better but lack credible, contextualized data. By co-producing insights on hidden environmental and social costs, and clearly communicating their business relevance, we will create space for collective action.
How do you hope exposing hidden costs will help shift behaviour?
Hidden costs are everywhere, but they’re rarely visible or quantified where decisions are made.
By exposing the true cost of food, we aim to shift narratives, pricing logic, and investment flows. We want producers who preserve ecosystems, ensure fair labor, and innovate in agroforestry or regenerative systems to be recognized and rewarded, not penalized by the market.
We believe that when food system actors see not only the damage of inaction but the potential value of better models, change becomes not only necessary, but desirable.
Can you tell us more about your Bioeconomy Fair Price Index?
Bioeconomy Fair Price Index is a continued effort to define what a fair farmgate price should be for key sociobioeconomy assets — including native fruits, forest products, and regenerative agricultural items, like açai, cacao, Brazil nuts, oils (the list goes on).
The main goal is to strengthen value chains that reward traditional knowledge, biodiversity conservation, and equitable rural livelihoods, ensuring that communities and producers are fairly compensated for their contributions to a sustainable bioeconomy. This price index must be updated and available every year.
The True Food initiative advocates for a new approach to value – one that recognizes the true worth of Amazonian forest goods by integrating their environmental, social, and cultural contributions into their cost. Through the Bioeconomy Fair Price Index, we aim to define and promote fair farmgate prices that reward forest guardians and make standing forests economically viable.
What are you hoping to achieve in 2026?
By end 2026, we want to achieve, at least, three important goals:
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Credible, actionable insights on the true cost of cacao, with data collected directly from diverse production systems in Brazil;
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A working prototype of the methodology, co-developed with producers, buyers, and public institutions;
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Real policy and market engagement, with at least one pilot influencing procurement, sourcing strategies or public policy design.
But beyond deliverables, we hope to inspire a new generation of food system thinkers and doers in Brazil and beyond, people who believe that better data, rooted in local contexts, can lead to a better future.
Visit TRUE FOOD’s website
