{"id":41842,"date":"2024-10-26T14:17:38","date_gmt":"2024-10-26T18:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.greenmoney.com\/2025\/?p=41842"},"modified":"2024-10-27T19:24:54","modified_gmt":"2024-10-27T23:24:54","slug":"the-growth-and-impact-potential-of-investing-in-food-system-transformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.greenmoney.com\/2025\/the-growth-and-impact-potential-of-investing-in-food-system-transformation\/","title":{"rendered":"The Growth and Impact Potential of Investing in Food System Transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"
> Back to November 2024 Issue<\/a><\/div>\n
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\"Elysabeth<\/a>Food: A Current Snapshot<\/h2>\n

Our global food system accounts for 30% of the world\u2019s greenhouse gas emissions.\u00a0Included in that is food waste which constitutes 8% and animal agriculture which is 18%<\/a> of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n

Also 32%<\/a> of the world\u2019s methane emissions come primarily from the supply chain of cows and sheep, but also from pigs, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). It would be hard to significantly impact climate change without addressing a number as large as 32%, especially since methane is one of the more powerful emissions.<\/a><\/p>\n

While cow burps are often cited as a source of methane as the jokes commonly note, a substantial portion of these emissions is also due to deforestation required to grow crops for animal feed. These animals need food in addition to other critical resources such as land, water, and time.<\/p>\n

Ironically, we often think we cut down trees to grow food filled with protein and fiber for people. But we don\u2019t. We deforest the planet and destroy biodiversity, in part, to grow food for a resource-masticating middleman: animals. We don\u2019t feed them once; we feed them for their entire lifetimes. This is why animal factories are a leading causes of deforestation and biodiversity loss according to the UNEP: it must continually clear forests to grow food for\u00a080 billion<\/a>\u00a0factory animals.<\/p>\n

In short, it turns out that we are great at feeding animals, but we are bad at feeding people, particularly as the population grows and the natural resources don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Feeding animals instead of people is not just inefficient and a bad business equation (it takes 25-35 calories of feed to get 1 calorie of cow, furthering the need for deforestation to grow more crops), but this supply chain is also lengthy. This leaves a large environmental footprint.<\/p>\n

Recently, a\u00a0New York Times<\/em><\/a>\u00a0article noted that the environmental cost of beef is $22.05 for a $5.34 meat portion. That is 413%. For cheese it is $3.76 for a $3.74 portion (101%). Chicken is $1.83 to $2.20 (83%). Chickpeas and tofu environmental to portion costs are $.74 to $1.46 (51%) and $.21 to $2.42 (9%), respectively.<\/p>\n

\"Environmental<\/a><\/p>\n

As we can see, these destructive, inefficient and long supply chains are an expensive endeavor. The damage from the overall food system of which animal protein plays a major role represents approximately\u00a0$12.7 trillion<\/a>\u00a0in externalized costs to the consumer, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO). This is 10% of global GDP.<\/p>\n

Despite this incredibly large footprint on our planet, sustainable food systems transformation driven by innovation currently receives 2.5%-4.8% of Climate funding, according to the Word Bank.<\/p>\n

Investors take note: this is changing, setting the stage for investing momentum. Where there is inefficiency, there is an opportunity for wealth creation.<\/p>\n

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