Episode 77: Lauren Baker on True Cost Accounting and The UN Food Summit

The Checkout talks with Lauren Baker of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food about True Cost Accounting and the U.N. Food Systems Summit.

From https://futureoffood.org/team/lauren-baker/ : Lauren Baker, PhD, has more than 20 years of experience facilitating cross-sectoral research, policy and advocacy for sustainable food systems in non-profit, academic, business, policy and philanthropic contexts. Lauren’s expertise ranges from researching agricultural biodiversity in Mexico to negotiating and developing municipal food policy and programs. Lauren’s work is focused on the intersections between food systems and health, climate change, agroecology and true cost accounting. Previously, Lauren led the Toronto Food Policy Council, a citizen advisory group embedded within the City of Toronto’s Public Health Division, and was the Founding Director of Sustain Ontario — the Alliance for Healthy Food and Farming. Lauren teaches in the Global Food Equity program at the University of Toronto, and is a research associate with Ryerson University’s Centre for Studies in Food Security.

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Episode #77 Notes

1:00 - On The Global Alliance for The Future of Food

3:00 - Case studies of work GAFF.

8:00 - Defining True Cost Accounting and why it matters.

12:00 - Why is this different than GAP accounting? And how are externalities accounted for in True Cost Accounting?

16:00 - How is True Cost Accounting embedded in regulatory frameworks?

21:00 - How would true cost accounting be applied to more conventional businesses? And how would it impact them?

27:30 - How does True Cost Accounting affect prices?

34:30 - How is GAFF getting involved in the UN Food Systems Conference?

37:00 - How do you pitch True Cost Accounting as a new norm?

40:00 - How does True Cost Accounting relate to climate change?

43:00 - What we can do to support True Cost Accounting.