During preparations for the UNFSS, the True Value of Food has emerged as possibly the ultimate gamechanger to realize sustainable food systems. Our food needs to become healthier, more sustainable and accessible for all. But there will be no ‘trigger’ for change as long as healthy and sustainable food is unaffordable to billions, unsustainable food is cheap and profitable, and the impact of food on people and planet is hidden. By uncovering the true costs and benefits of food, the True Value of Food can help governments and private sector create an economic model that promotes healthy, sustainable, profitable and affordable food. At the same time, much remains to be learned about the science and practice of the True Value of Food.

The main objective of the True Value of Food Initiative is to unlock the potential of the True Value of Food for governments, businesses, investors and consumers by providing them with a new economic basis for decision making based on the True Value of Food. To do so, it aims to:

1. Create awareness, understanding and build capacity amongst governments, the private sector and citizens. about what the True Value of Food is and how it can be used to realize sustainable food systems.
2. Establish a common language and harmonized science-based methods for the true value of food.
3. Identify true value solutions that work in practice through pilots and scaling interventions together with investors, governments and businesses at the global, regional and national level
4. Continue to build methodologies and conduct analysis to assess the impacts of change and
   trade-offs of various options. 

Rationale
The “hidden costs” of global food and land use systems are estimated to be US$19.8 trillion per year (Scientific Group of the UN Food Systems Summit, 2021): $7 trillion of environmental costs and $12 trillion of health costs. These costs, including high rates of diet-related chronic disease, the impacts of climate change and unfair wages are not included in prices and profits, and thus ignored by markets. Often, these costs are borne by people who did not have a say: the least advantaged segments of society (frequently smallholder farmers, youth, women, indigenous peoples, people of colour, marginalised communities) and by future generations. At the same time, the global food system has many hidden benefits that are also not fully reflected in food prices: healthy food is a basic need with many economic and social benefits, and well-functioning food systems allow farmers and workers to earn a decent livelihood.

To address this, the True Value of Food Initiative will develop a new economic basis for decision making that accounts for the true value of food. This new basis includes three elements:

• True Cost Accounting (TCA) to systematically quantify and value impacts and dependencies across the full agri-food value chain to enable decision-making and policies based on true value.
• True Value business strategies to develop and implement successful business models that create true value for society.
• True pricing policies to internalize the externalities to make healthy and sustainable food more affordable and align market incentives with true value through market-based pathways, regulatory and income policies.