A radical overhaul of the global food system to address climate change, biodiversity and health would raise agricultural commodity prices by about a third by 2050 but would be outweighed by up to $10tn a year worth of benefits, a group of leading academics and scientists has estimated.
The environmental cost of existing food systems stood at $3tn a year and the additional costs to health were at least $11tn, the research from the Food System Economics Commission estimated.
But a shift to take into account healthier diets and biodiversity would result in between $5tn and $10tn a year in benefits even after the additional costs of transforming production and consumption were factored in, it said.