ROMA – Foods that are too fatty, too sugary, hyper-processed, produced with a senseless use of pesticides. We know for sure – writes Andrea Barolini, director of Valori.it – that an unbalanced diet can cause serious health problems. Added to this is the fact that food production often involves a gigantic environmental and climate impact. So what is the economic cost that states are forced to bear to repair the damage to the structures of our agricultural and food system?
The response contains alarming results. An answer was provided by one I study Frenchcurated by four associations: Catholic Relief, Civam, Solidarités Paysans and French Federation of Diabetics. The results of the analysis are alarming: according to the report, “our food supply entails annual costs for public coffers, in terms of repairs and compensation, amounting to 19 billion euros.” Of this figure, 12.3 billion are attributable to the costs that France must face for health expenses “due to poor nutrition, in particular with regard to obesity and diabetes”, as well as for “professional diseases linked to the use of pesticides”.
French and Italian eating habits. It is a nation whose eating habits certainly differ, at least in part, from those of Italy. But it still represents a good point of reference, since a good part of the considerations can be easily extended to other European countries as well. Starting from the ecological costs, which in the report are calculated at 3.4 billion euros per year, necessary to “remedy all the damage caused by the food system”, in terms of climate impact, waste management and pollution produced, starting from water resources.
The social consequences of food production and consumption. The same amount, 3.4 billion, is ultimately disbursed due to the “social consequences” of food production and consumption, in particular due to the need to guarantee support (which is also insufficient) to farmers. The latter, in fact, are victims of a mechanism that very often provides for ridiculous remunerations, in the face of gigantic revenues achieved by multinationals that increasingly control agricultural production, distribution and intermediate steps.
READ ON VALORI.IT “AGRICULTURAL PRICES DEPEND ON ENTIRELY FINANCIAL DYNAMICS”
A general picture that resembles madness. An overall picture that looks a lot like madness. Especially since the report only takes into consideration “out-of-pocket expenses”. Not, for example, the quantification in economic terms of the years of life expectancy lost, nor the losses linked to the collapse of biodiversity. This means that the 19 billion euros per year indicated “only cover a small part of the costs borne by society”. And in any case the figure is already “almost double the amount allocated by France for ecological planning for the year 2024”.
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EU support for the agricultural food system. Added to this is the fact that the current agricultural and food system is heavily supported by the public authorities of all European states. In the French case, overall public support amounts to 48.3 billion euros per year. Of this figure, approximately 80% goes into the coffers of those who produce food in an unsustainable way, “based on a logic of race for volumes, standardization of agricultural raw materials and pressure on farmers’ remunerations”.
The public authorities finance a system with gigantic costs. The CAP, the European Union’s common agricultural policy, behaves in the same way. In short, public authorities represent fundamental financiers of a system that imposes gigantic costs, undermines our health, senselessly exploits natural resources and fuels climate catastrophe.
* Andrea Barolini – Valori.it
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