What Rockefeller’s New Program Says About the True Costs of Global Food Systems

The Rockefeller Foundation’s recent launch of a new $105 million “Good Food Strategy” is the latest example of a decade-long evolution in food philanthropy that might be summed up as a shift from calories to systems. In other words, increasing the supply and productivity of food in areas where people lack sufficient nourishment is still a goal, but not the only goal.

Instead, funders and food-access advocates are increasingly looking at the entire food-production system, with programs that promote the bigger picture of environmental sustainability and equity in global food production, as well as providing enough healthy food to the people who need it.

Rockefeller Foundation is not new to food-related philanthropy. It has funded food causes throughout its 100-year history, including playing a central role in the Green Revolution, which used agricultural technology to feed the world, while leaving behind a dubious legacy. Like many food- and hunger-focused advocates in private and public contexts, Rockefeller’s focus throughout the 20th and into the 21st century was on food productivity, said Roy Steiner, senior vice president for Rockefeller’s food initiative.

“In the ’50s and ’60s, there was so much concern about famine, but if you focus only on productivity, you face unintended consequences,” Steiner said. Among these consequences were a reliance on highly processed, less nutritious foods that contribute to obesity and other health issues that are as costly and as damaging as hunger to individuals and society. Pulling the lens wider reveals other serious consequences — like the long-term use of chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, which can harm plant and animal life, decrease biodiversity, degrade and contaminate farming soil and water, and boost greenhouse gas emissions.

Rockefeller’s July 2021 report, “True Cost of Food: Measuring What Matters to Transform the U.S. Food System,” is one introduction to the foundation’s attempt at a fuller appreciation of the U.S. food system and the real costs that reach beyond the supermarket checkout. For example, according to the report, in 2019, Americans spent an estimated $1.1 trillion on food, which included the costs of food from production to table. But that trillion-dollar-plus price tag doesn’t include the cost of healthcare for millions who suffer diet-related diseases, nor does it include the costs of the food system’s ongoing — and considerable — contributions to water and air pollution, reduced biodiversity, or the emissions that cause climate change. With all those costs added into the equation, Rockefeller’s report estimates the true cost of the U.S. food system is at least $3.2 trillion per year.

And that’s just in the U.S. A look at the global food system shows how it has failed so many. For example, the market value of the global food system is about $9 trillion: Despite this, says Rockefeller, two-thirds of people living in extreme poverty are agricultural workers and their families. Worldwide, unhealthy diets account for 1 in 5 deaths. And the food system generates more than a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions, according to the funder.

And with climate change causing an ever-accelerating state of emergency, green innovation in the food system must be part of efforts to decarbonize energy generation.

Rockefeller’s recently launched Good Food Strategy will invest $105 million over three years to increase access to healthy and sustainable food for approximately 40 million people, starting in Rwanda, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda and Ethiopia, India and Colombia. Eventually, the program may extend to other countries.

The Good Food Initiative will work in three areas: food data and science, food policy, and food purchasing. The data and science funding will support systems that generate data that policy- and decision-makers can use, including the sort that reveals the true costs of food and food systems. The policy efforts will advance programs to combat diet-related disease — including efforts to make healthy food a coverable benefit under healthcare plans. The food purchasing segment of the initiative will support institutions like schools and hospitals in efforts to steer procurement programs away from less-healthy foods and toward healthier, more sustainable options.

These efforts will leverage other Rockefeller food programs and partnerships, such as the Periodic Table of Food Initiative, a consortium of funders supporting scientific study of food and human health.

Even given just a few of these broad factors, it’s easy to see that improvements in the food system can translate into substantial improvements in human health and equity. For example, Steiner said, when institutions develop policies to purchase only healthier foods, it not only benefits the people eating the more nourishing food; it also puts pressure on the industry to shift more of its total production to healthier foods. “The people who are making the profits and the people who are bearing the costs are different,” he said. “That’s the reason you need to look into the whole system.”

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