Short Communication: True Cost Accounting (TCA) as a transformative approach for livestock agri-food systems

Abstract

Today, there is extensive debate about the sustainability of the food system. Numerous research and policy initiatives focus on transforming the food system to make it more sustainable. The method of True Cost Accounting (TCA) can reveal positive and negative externalities for natural, social, human, and economic capital in food production and consumption. Insight into and internalisation of these externalities in decision-making can contribute to making food systems more sustainable. This paper illustrates the use of TCA and presents a research agenda for TCA in livestock agri-food systems. TCA is based on environmental and social life-cycle assessments and, as a result, inherits some of their shortcomings. Monetising the impact of externalities is a methodological challenge, further complicated by the practical challenges of data availability. We recommend working towards a harmonised TCA approach with an interdisciplinary team of researchers to assess the true value of livestock agri-food systems. (c) 2025 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of The animal Consortium. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Keywords

Animal production; Animal welfare; Life-Cycle Assessment; Monetisation of sustainability; Social conditions

Published in

Animal
2025, volume: 19, number: 8, article number: 101591
Publisher: ELSEVIER

SLU Authors

• Smith, Laurence

  • Department of Biosystems and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • University of Reading

UKÄ Subject classification

Animal and Dairy Science
Environmental Economics and Management

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.animal.2025.101591

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/144553