Putting Food on the Balance Sheet 2025

Food systems are vital to the global economy, accounting for around 10% of global GDP and providing over 40% of all jobs worldwide2. The food system value chain is complex and fragmented, ranging from input suppliers and farmers to processors, retailers and households.Why food systems must become a priority for commercial capital1 Farm inputsDescriptionProduction Agricultural productionTrading Transportation Manufacturing Sales 1st order ProcessingConsumption & disposalConsumption Processing & transportation Produce agricultural inputs (e.g., fertilizer, pesticides)Cultivate crops and raise animals for meat, dairy or egg productionBuy and sell agricultural commoditiesProcess raw ingredients from farmsProduce processed and packaged food productsStore and distribute food productsSell food to consumers Consume food and manage food waste disposal Food systems are complex due to their extensive and fragmentated value chain FIGURE 1 Despite their importance, current food systems are on an unsustainable trajectory and require urgent transformation to ensure food security for an additional 2 billion people by 20503. Agriculture is responsible for almost 90% of global deforestation4 and the broader food value chain accounts for more than 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions5, while also being extremely vulnerable to the impact of climate change. Each year, extreme weather events cause a loss of 5% of total agricultural output6, driving up insurance payouts and increasing the credit risk of agribusinesses. It is therefore essential to transform the production, distribution, and consumption of food towards systems that are more sustainable and resilient. The most urgent need for investment is in food production, where livestock management and land use change each account for 25% of food system emissions7. Cutting these emissions is crucial to preventing further climate impacts. Additionally, regenerative agriculture can go beyond emissions avoidance by actively capturing carbon into healthier soils, with sustainable practices able to sequester as much as 34% of GHG emissions from agricultural land each year8. Despite these opportunities, funding is neither flowing fast enough nor at sufficient scale to prevent further land use change, restore degraded land and expand sustainable agricultural practices. Global agrifood systems require an estimated $1.1 trillion investment a year9 over the next five years to stay within the greenhouse gas emission targets of the Paris Agreement. Currently, annual investment is only 5% of that, approximately $60 billion-$75 billion. Much of this capital is predominantly public10. Private investment, where it exists, is concentrated in Europe and North America. Those most in need of investment – Asia Pacific, Africa and Latin America – remain significantly underfunded. Source: World Economic Forum Putting Food on the Balance Sheet 4