Exclusive Food Tank Event on the Real Cost of Cheap Food

We’re honored to invite you to our special event on “The Real Cost of Food” at American University in Washington D.C. from 10:30 AM- 12:00 PM EST on November 12th, 2015! Register HERE today!

Not in Washington DC? Register to view the free livestream HERE!

Imagine if the price you paid for a hamburger included factors such as heart disease, the number one cause of death worldwide; or the runoff of manure spread on fields from concentrated animal feeding operations; or injuries to workers in slaughterhouses and processing plants; or the poor animal welfare practices in livestock operations. It would certainly be more than US$.99 and would not be part of the value menu.

True Cost Accounting assigns value to the social, environmental, and health impacts of producing food. This fall, Food Tank is hosting a special event on True Cost Accounting with the Union of Concerned Scientists and GRACE Communications Foundation. Register now!

“It’s not an accident that we grow so much corn and soybean commodity crops. It’s not an accident that we only use two percent of land for fruits and vegetables,” said Jenn Yates of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

This special event will spotlight the enormous external costs of producing food, proving there is no such thing as cheap food. In fact, True Cost Accounting has the potential to rearrange the economics of industrial agriculture through policies that reward sustainability and discourage irresponsible practices.

This panel event will be moderated by Daniel Reed, director of Planet Forward and will include keynotes by Ricardo Salvador, director of the Union of Concerned Scientists Food & Environment Program and Danielle Nierenberg, president of Food Tank.

Confirmed panelists include:

Michael Berger, Elevation Burger
Roni Neff, Center for a Livable Future
Paul Shapiro, The Humane Society of the United States
Jenn Yates, Union of Concerned Scientists
Adam Diamond, American University

Additionally, the event will coincide with the release of our brand new Food Tank by the Numbers: True Cost Accounting report, “The Real Cost of Food: Examining the Social, Environmental, and Health Externalities of Producing Food.” This work was supported by the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, GRACE Communications Foundation, and McKnight Foundation. Learn more about our work on True Cost Accounting HERE.

The event will be hosted at American University on Thursday, November 12th, 2015 from 10:30 AM -12:00 PM EST. Lunch will be provided by Elevation Burger after the panel. Register today for $25 or sign up to become a Food Tank sustainer and attend for free! Hurry, space is limited!

Emily Nink

Emily is a masters candidate of the Agriculture, Food and Environment program at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy in Boston. She received a BA in Spanish and a BS in Global Environmental Change and Sustainability from Johns Hopkins University, where she was involved in many food sustainability projects including the creation of a community garden and leadership of the student group Real Food Hopkins, a chapter of the national Real Food Challenge. Emily worked for three years as a research assistant at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, researching food policy councils, writing curriculum for the Baltimore Food and Faith Project, and contributing to literature reviews and other scientific analyses. Emily's diverse academic interests include urban food policy and food system mapping, urban agriculture and community gardening, and sustainable supply chains. Her senior thesis at JHU explored heirloom tomato production in Maryland, and her current research focuses on sensory attributes of local produce in Massachusetts. She has contributed as a consultant to interdisciplinary projects and continues to be involved with Real Food Challenge. Through her masters degree at Tufts, she hopes to continue to learn from and contribute to the scholarship of a more sustainable food system, finding innovative solutions to complex system flaws, and increasing through investigation our knowledge of the intricate relationships between public health and the health of the environment.