Agrifood systems are perpetually changing. Greater agricultural productivity and food trading have reduced hunger and enhanced food security and nutrition. However, agrifood systems have become increasingly fragile and unsustainable, contributing to climate change and natural resource degradation while failing to provide healthy diets to all. Many of these impacts are not included in the market prices, which shape incentives to produce, process, distribute, consume and dispose of agrifood products. They are thus hidden and generally not considered in the day-to-day decisions agrifood actors make. Agrifood systems are invaluable to society, but one must also consider their hidden impacts.

True cost accounting (TCA) allows estimating the hidden costs and benefits of agrifood systems, providing decision-makers with the evidence needed for their transformation. TCA is a useful approach in this regard because it can measure and value the (environmental, social, health and economic) costs and benefits generated by agrifood systems to improve decision-making. A national-level TCA assessment for 154 countries reveals that global quantified hidden costs from agrifood systems are highly likely to exceed 10 trillion dollars, revealing the urgent need to factor these costs into decision-making. These new estimates are a first step in raising awareness and should be followed by targeted TCA assessments, needed to inform decision-makers on how to employ levers for a transition towards sustainable agrifood systems.