What’s the True Price of a School Lunch?

When government agencies are choosing how to spend tax dollars, they typically have one primary benchmark: Who can deliver goods or services at the cheapest price.

But researchers are pushing governments to re-evaluate. They argue that some goods, particularly certain foods, may have a lower price tag, but may impose additional costs, such as the loss of species as cropland takes over habitat or the greenhouse gases from cow burps.

For years, economists have been developing a system of “true cost accounting” based on the growing body of evidence about the environmental damage caused by different types of agriculture. Now, emerging research aims to translate this damage to the planet into dollar figures.

In an article published today that I wrote with Manuela Andreoni and Catrin Einhorn, we explain what real world prices might look like if these environmental harms were factored into the prices of proteins we eat everyday, such as beef and tofu.

Accounting for these hidden costs could change the way governments decide what to buy, and those decisions could have implications for human health, biodiversity and more.

Consider school lunch.

Apples transported over long distances might cause more air pollution, for example, which ends up causing costly respiratory conditions that might have been avoided. Milk from dairies in areas with low rainfall might deprive other users of scarce water. Serving hamburgers supports an industry that generates planet-warming methane, accelerating extreme weather events that destroy homes and kill people.