children eating school lunch in cafeteria

The True Cost of Food

Alternative mechanisms to support local food procurement by public agencies in NYS

New York state agencies spend over $1.2 billion each year purchasing food.

Under current law, procurement agencies like schools and prisons are required to purchase food from the lowest bidder. But these prices don't reflect the cost of important and expensive externalities like greenhouse gas emissions, nutrition, and job creation associated with local food production, all of which hide the "true cost" of food covered by New York taxpayers.

A new project by Cornell researchers is exploring how modifying procurement practices can be a cost-effective policy proposition. Modifications could lead to gains in several sectors, reducing future fiscal expenditures on curative health care, environmental remediation, and social safety nets. Noncommunicable diseases like obesity, diabetes, and heart disease could also decline while reducing the impacts of climate change, deforestation, excessive water withdrawals, and biodiversity loss, and their enormous associated, and largely unaccounted for, costs.

 

    Project Overview

    Launched in September 2022, this research study quantifies the true cost of food procured by state agencies in New York and develops a mechanism to transparently adjust procurement bids to account for these costs. The project aims to correct this cost imbalance through three stages of integrated working streams.

    school lunch tray
    Students at City Honors School in Buffalo, New York, eat lunch on a “New York Thursday,” a weekly effort to promote the foods in the lunches that are grown or produced in New York state.
    Photo by Lindsay France, Cornell University

    1

    Estimate the environmental, health and other spillover costs of food procured by NYS agencies.

    2

    Develop a framework for adjusting food vendors’ bids to incorporate these multipliers and spillover costs.

    3

    Engage with NYS agencies and food vendors in implementing true costs in public food procurement.

    Latest news

    The Cornell Chronicle

    Study to unmask the ‘true cost of food’ for NYS agencies

    Researchers seek to support New York’s food and agriculture producers by calculating the “true cost of food,” which takes into account hidden costs like climate, environmental, fiscal, health and workers impacts.

    School Lunch tray with milk, peas, apple, pasta, roll

    Project Team

    Mario Herrero
    Mario Herrero

    Principal Investigator
    Professor
    Nancy and Peter Meinig Family Investigator, Life Sciences Department of Global Development
    Cornell Atkinson Fellow

    Man in a black suit smiling at the camera
    Chris Barrett

    Co-PI
    Stephen B. and Janice G. Ashley Professor of Applied Economics and Management, Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management
    Professor, Departments of Economics and of Global Development
    Cornell Atkinson Fellow

    Bradley Rickard
    Bradley Rickard

    Co-PI
    Professor, Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management

    a man in a gray suit sits in front of a gray wall
    Todd Schmit

    Co-PI
    Professor, Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management
    Faculty Director, Agribusiness and Rural Development Program
    Faculty Director, Cooperative Enterprise Program

    woman smiles at camera
    Kerstin Damerau

    Research Associate, Department of Global Development

    woman in greenhouse
    Cynthia Mathys

    Senior Manager, Strategic Partnerships, Department of Global Development & Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability

    Nicole Rossi
    Nicole Rossi

    Communications Manager, Department of Global Development

    woman in black suit smiles at camera
    Jialu Li

    Graduate Research Assistant
    Master of Public Administration Candidate, Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy

    woman in white shirt smiles at camera
    Maria DiGiovanni

    Research Assistant
    International Development Student, Cornell University

    Supported by

    Rockefeller Foundation Logo

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