Cooking, collecting water and fuel, producing food and caring for dependants are essential to food systems, yet much of this work remains unpaid and economically invisible. The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) examines these connections through the perspectives of agroecology and feminist economics, arguing that food production, human wellbeing and care should be considered together. The analysis highlights how women continue to carry a disproportionate share of food-related care work and how infrastructure, income and public policy shape the time required to provide nutritious food.

The authors draw parallels between undervalued care work and agroecological production. Both can generate wider social and environmental benefits that conventional economic measures often overlook. Agroecological systems can support biodiversity, healthy soils, diversified diets and reduced dependence on agrochemicals, while care work contributes directly to nutrition and household wellbeing. The resource argues that prevailing economic and agricultural policies frequently favour large-scale commodity production and export markets, while insufficiently accounting for environmental impacts, local food systems and unpaid labour.

To bring agroecology and the care economy into closer alignment, the authors propose greater public investment in local food infrastructure and social protection, expanded public procurement of agroecological food, supportive trade policies, stronger protections for agricultural and care workers, and accounting approaches that recognize environmental impacts and unpaid care. These measures are presented as policy directions for integrating food, care and macroeconomic decision-making.