Pulse Brain · Growing Health Evidence Index
Tier 4 โ€” Narrative / commentaryGrey literature

The False Economy of Big Food

Jackson T

2024.0

All evidence

Summary

This work, attributed to Jackson (2024), appears to offer a critical analysis of the economic model underpinning large-scale industrial food production, arguing that its apparent cost advantages constitute a 'false economy' when broader externalities are accounted for. The title suggests the paper interrogates how subsidies, regulatory gaps, and the non-pricing of environmental and health damages allow 'Big Food' to present itself as economically efficient whilst displacing costs onto public systems, ecosystems, and future generations. Without a confirmed journal, DOI, or abstract, the specific empirical basis and methodological rigour of the work cannot be verified.

UK applicability

The arguments around externalised costs, food system subsidies, and public health burdens are highly relevant to UK policy debates, particularly in the context of post-Brexit agricultural transition, the National Food Strategy, and ongoing discussions about true cost accounting in food and farming.

Key measures

Externalised costs of industrial food production; market price distortions; public health costs; environmental costs

Outcomes reported

The work likely examines the hidden or externalised costs of industrial food systems, including environmental, health, and social costs not reflected in market prices. It may argue that apparent economic efficiencies of large-scale food production are offset by broader societal harms.

Theme
Policy, governance & rights
Subject
Food systems economics & governance
Study type
Commentary
Study design
Narrative review
Source type
Grey literature
Status
Published
Geography
Global
System type
Food supply chain
Catalogue ID
WP0103

Topic tags

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