Ecosystems and agricultural & food
systems are typically evaluated in isolation from one another. However,
ecosystems are the ecological home in which crop and livestock systems
thrive and produce food for humans, and in turn agricultural practices,
food production, distribution and consumption impose several
unquantified externalities. A ‘TEEB for Agriculture
& Food’ study, led by the UNEP TEEB Office, will bring
together economists, business leaders, agriculturalists and experts in
biodiversity to provide a comprehensive economic
evaluation of the ‘eco-agri-food systems’ complex, and demonstrate that
the economic environment in which farmers operate is distorted by a lack of
awareness of dependency on natural capital. A “double-whammy” of
economic invisibility of impacts from both ecosystems and
agricultural/food systems is a root cause of increased fragility and
lower resilience to shocks in both ecological and human systems.
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