Food Prices for Nutrition, led by the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, is assessing the cost and affordability of healthy diets around the world. The researchers behind the project hope the data can drive policy interventions to improve global nutrition security.
The latest data from Food Prices for Nutrition show that 2.8 billion people could not afford a healthy diet in 2022. “We’re a long way from getting to zero,” economist Will Masters, a Professor at the Friedman School and the Principal Investigator on the project, tells Food Tank.
But Masters believes that this issue is “clearly actionable.” He explains that steps can be taken to lower the cost of healthy foods, provide nutrition assistance, and make nutritious choices easier.
Nigeria is one country putting the results of the project’s research to use. In 2020, the government began releasing monthly estimates of the cost of a healthy diet. When the country began to reconsider the minimum wage—which hadn’t been increased in years—for certain jobs, trade unions used the data to push for a figure they deemed fair.
Taking home enough money to afford a healthy diet “was an important part of human dignity that could help set a minimum wage,” Masters says.
But as the world begins to witness the fallout of U.S. aid disruptions and cuts introduced by the Trump-Vance administration, Masters worries about the impact it will have on global food and nutrition security.
“The current government in Washington is taking 20 steps back and reversing so much of what people have fought for,” Masters tells Food Tank. “All the scientific apparatus, all of the faith in expertise, all the understanding that we had built up is being destroyed.”
Masters believes that it is a “terrifying” time. But he also hopes that once people can account for all that is being dismantled, they can find a way to rebuild. “We have some years in the wilderness to organize ourselves and to think straight about how to survive this terrible period that we’re in right now.” And he stresses that this must be done “in solidarity with those who are most affected.”
Scientific knowledge and a belief in a better future will be key to get through this period, Masters asserts, stating, “the secret to improvements each time has been science. It has been discovery as much as it has been faith and trust and hope.”
“We need to keep our trust in each other high and our ability to hear each other and listen and share with each other — that’s very important,” Masters continues. “Just to learn, just to understand is a magical superpower.”
Listen to the full conversation with Will Masters on “Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg” to hear more about the guidance that Food Prices for Nutrition offers, the impact of recent U.S. tariffs on food systems, and how Masters is making food economics more accessible through his open access textbook Food Economics: Agriculture, Nutrition, and Health.
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Photo courtesy of Martijn Vonk, Unsplash
