The assessment of external costs and benefits of the Swiss agri-food system – a Case Study within SOFA 2024

Supporting the preparation of the 2024 edition of the "State of Food and Agriculture" (SOFA) by contributing a background paper covering the following objectives:

• Contribute to the assessment of the plausibility of the SOFA 2023 results for Switzerland and the identification of gaps and needs for more in-depth research
• Quantify in a tailored way Switzerland's hidden costs and benefits across all dimensions of sustainability (economic, social -incl. health- and environmental)
• Identify the most pressing challenges and opportunities of the Swiss agrifood system in terms of externalities and recommendations of potential entry points for its sustainable transformation

• Foreign public funds
• Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG)
• Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO)

• Müller Adrian (Department of Food System Sciences)

• De Luca Kevin (Department of Food System Sciences)
• Schader Christian (Department of Food System Sciences)

Project manager

• fao.org: The State of Food and Agriculture (Publications)

• Agri-Food Systems (Department of Food System Sciences, FiBL Switzerland)
• Sustainability (Department of Food System Sciences, FiBL Switzerland)