This report draws on a wide variety of case studies to help demonstrate the potential of the two-phase TCA approach proposed in The State of Food and Agriculture 2023 for identifying and prioritizing levers that represent all agrifood systems categories to varying degrees. FAO commissioned several case studies for this 2024 edition and sourced others through a call for submissions on the Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition. The case studies cover examples of different scopes and address all or selected hidden cost components. Consequently, while some of them may not necessarily fit into the foundational definition of TCA, they show the applicability of the proposed approach under political, institutional, financial and capacity constraints that are likely to be binding in practice.
The case studies featured herein illustrate different approaches to phase two TCA assessments, ranging from national to product value chain-level assessments. They represent a wide array of agrifood systems types and highlight the value of transformation to agrifood systems actors (producers, agribusinesses, financial institutions and consumers), as well as the role of global and national governance in facilitating the desired transformations.
Chapter 2 explores the process for achieving agrifood systems transformation. It first describes the agrifood systems typology and then provides the hidden cost estimates and breakdown of the dietary risks for NCDs by agrifood systems category. The chapter then details economic modelling providing insights into potential courses of action, though such options are limited by the varying institutional and fiscal capacity across the agrifood systems categories. Through a TCA case study in six selected countries, it highlights the role of stakeholder consultations to identify plausible scenarios for sustainable environmental, social and health outcomes to facilitate policy prioritization. Finally, this chapter describes how TCA can be carried out to support the decision-making process at the national level, as is underway in Switzerland, where the government is considering hidden costs as part of its national Vision 2050. The discussion on the challenges and opportunities of this approach in identifying national transformation pathways is further complemented by examples of a UNEP-led initiative in partnership with governments.
Chapter 3 demonstrates how change can be driven from within food supply chains with different structures across agrifood systems types, ranging from small to large scale, formal to informal and local to global. These structures have implications for the distribution of environmental, social and health benefits and costs (hidden or observed) along the supply chain. As mentioned, the longer the geographical and time disconnect between the cost creators and cost bearers, the harder it becomes to internalize the hidden costs due to existing incentive structures. While producers, agribusinesses and retailers may stand to gain from transformation, the benefits of doing so may be hidden from them; public intervention is thus required for societal value creation. Using case studies, this chapter identifies barriers to transformative change and considers how they can be addressed to create value for all supply chain actors across agrifood systems categories. It also identifies complementary levers that can help maximize the value of transformation through collaborations between actors, including producers, agribusinesses, financial organizations and governments.
Chapter 4 presents the challenges to and value of agrifood systems transformation from a consumer viewpoint. As consumers (including institutions with purchasing power) make up the largest group of agrifood systems actors, their demand for agrifood systems products can have a significant influence on the direction of agrifood systems, which can be leveraged to incentivize change towards more sustainable, healthy and inclusive systems. This chapter uses case studies and the growing literature on policies that aim to catalyse behavioural change when it comes to dietary patterns to demonstrate the value of demand-driven transformation by agrifood systems category.
Chapter 5 brings together the lessons learned throughout the report, using the agrifood systems typology to guide the application of the TCA approach as a tool for identifying and prioritizing effective levers for local, national and global agrifood systems transformation. It also discusses the challenges of navigating current incentive structures as a result of distributional issues that inevitably arise during large-scale transformations, such as that needed to ensure global agrifood systems can provide healthy and nutritious food for all in a sustainable way.
