How much is food really worth? To your average consumer the answer may well relate to what they receive, but an innovative new initiative in Germany aims to change perceptions, encouraging a growing public awareness of sustainability and the need to pay growers fairly for their products. 

Launched during Germany's International Green Week exhibition, which took place in Berlin in late January, the True Cost of Food project is dedicated to educating consumers at the point of sale about how best to keep food supplies sustainable.

A joint initiative between the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and organic food distributor Nature & More, the campaign has initially been rolled out across stores of Berlin-based retailer BioCompany but plans are already in place to take the project across Europe.

Its backers also include global organic organisation IFOAM, German agriculture and ecology foundation Stiftung Ökologie und Landwirstschaft (SÖL), and German umbrella organic federation BÖLW.

According to campaign initiator Volkert Engelsman, CEO and founder of both Nature & More and its sister company Eosta, the initiative promotes the idea that food prices should reflect the true cost of food, including hidden environmental and social costs.

“We’re seeing pressure building, from financial auditors, growers, retailers and NGOs to move towards a true cost accounting approach where the cost of a product reflects the true value of that product – this is not the case where costs are externalised,” he says.

Although for many categories, food has never been cheaper, Engelsman argues that each and every product brings ecological and social costs with it that are unaccounted.

According to a recent FAO study, the hidden costs of conventionally produced food amount to US$2100 billion for environmental damage and US$2,700 billion for social costs, totaling an estimated US$4.8 trillion. If prices for food products would reflect true costs, claims Engelsman, organic products would be significantly cheaper than conventional products.

True transparency

“This is a tsunami coming towards us because sustainability is no longer just about switching off the lights, it is time that sustainability ascended into the DNA of business,” he argues.

“It is time we redefined profit to include people and the environment. There is no longer a future for companies that increase their profits at the expense of people and the planet.

“Ultimately, we will have to create a more level playing field in the market where the producer will be rewarded with a better price and the polluter will pay.”

True sustainability, continues Engelsman, can only be achieved by ensuring transparency across the whole supply chain, arguing that retailers and the fresh produce sector need to move away from short-term profits towards a multi-stakeholder model that defines profit as something that includes people and the planet.

“So far we have seen a tremendous response because people like the idea and governments, not just social auditors and NGOs, are taking interest,” he says.

“Rather than just talking about this, the EU food business has finally decided to have this kind of transparency at the point of sale.”

To date, the project with BioCompany features table grapes from South Africa, lemons from Chile and South Africa, oranges and grapefruit from South Africa and Egypt, top fruit from Argentina, mangos from Peru and Burkina Faso, and tomatoes from the Netherlands.

But although the initiative is currently confined to Germany, Engelsman is confident that it will rapidly expand in scope and reach over the coming years.

“BioCompany has a head start, but customer demand will mean that other retailers will want to become involved,” he predicts.

In fact, as well as expanding the amount of product lines covered by the initiative, Engelsman reveals that roll outs with other retailers will take place in the near future in the Scandinavia and Benelux regions.

“We believe this will have major consequences,” he concludes.

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