THE LINEAR FOOD SYSTEM IS RIPE FOR DISRUPTION

There are well-known drawbacks related to our consumption of food, including the twin scourges of hunger and obesity. Less well known is the extent of the negative impacts of current food production methods. Overall, for every dollar spent on food, society pays two dollars in health, environmental, and economic costs. Half these costs - totalling USD 5.7 trillion each year globally - are due to the way food is produced.

These USD 5.7 trillion costs are a direct result of the 'linear' nature of modern food production, which extracts finite resources, is wasteful and polluting, and harms natural systems. Currently, the agrifood industry is responsible for almost a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions globally, degrades the natural resources on which it depends, and pollutes air, water, and soil. The equivalent of six garbage trucks of edible food is lost or wasted every second. In cities, less than 2% of the valuable biological nutrients in food by-products and organic waste (excluding manure) is composted or otherwise valorised.

Perhaps most surprisingly, even when apparently making healthy food choices, people's health is still being harmed by the way we produce food and deal with its by-products. By 2050, around 5 million lives a year - twice as many as the current obesity toll - could be lost as a result of current food production processes. Among the harmful impacts of such methods are diseases caused by air pollution and water contamination, health consequences of pesticide use, and increased antimicrobial resistance. Some of the principal causes are overuse of fertilisers, excessive reliance on antibiotics in animals, and untreated human waste.