 Food. It nurtures us. It connects us. The journey of food from farm to table creates jobs and shapes our land and cultures. But agri-food systems have huge hidden costs. To the environment, our health, and society. Those hidden costs are rarely reflected in market prices and traditional economic analysis. But we ignore them at our peril. If we want to stop climate change and protect biodiversity, design more resilient and sustainable agri-food systems, ensure access to healthy diets that allow people to thrive, and address poverty and inequality. We need to get better at accounting for these hidden costs and acting to address them. Our new report makes the case for using true cost accounting to measure the real impact of how we produce, transport, process, and consume food. This in turn will allow decision makers to design and apply the best solutions to address the hidden costs that affect us all. FAO is responding to this essential need by dedicating for the first time two consecutive issues of the state of food and agriculture report to the same theme. This year's report reveals that the hidden costs of our agri-food systems are at least $10 trillion a year. That's nearly 10% of global GDP. The highest costs are to people's health, from poor diets leading to obesity and non-communicable diseases, mostly affecting high and upper middle income countries. One-fifth of the total costs are environmental, including from greenhouse gas emissions. Low-income countries are hit hardest by social hidden costs caused by poverty and undernourishment. These preliminary results show the need to produce deeper, national-level analysis to help policymakers address these costs by enabling comparisons of different levers from subsidy and tax reforms to new regulations to voluntary guidelines. Next year's report will focus on these more targeted assessments. We have a huge opportunity to transform agri-food systems for the better, realizing benefits for people and planet, and setting us on a more sustainable, resilient, and inclusive course for the future.