As today's food systems generate $12 trillion in hidden social, economic, and environmental costs due to the prioritisation of volume over nutritional value. The system fails to pay a living wage while creating sizeable profits for a concentrated set of players, and treats the natural environment as an infinite resource.
Therefore, the World Bank has published a report with a focus on food finance architecture to transform the food system into a more healthy, equitable and sustainable one. The presented Food Finance Architecture lays out how banks, investors, development institutions, companies, farmers, and governments can shift capital out of high-carbon, unequal, extractive food assets and into inclusive, climate-smart, circular business models that benefit the people and planet.
The report analyses five imperatives that need to optimise public spending and mobilize private capital for a global food system transformation. Read the executive summary here.