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Researchers warn of ‘hidden cost’ of Indonesian diet
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The daily recommended intake of vegetables is between 300 and 400 grams. But Indonesians only consumed around 122 grams of vegetables per day in 2016. (Shutterstock/Ana Blazic Pavlovic)
T
he Indonesian diet and agricultural land use system incur “hidden” health and environmental costs associated with nutrition-related health problems and environmental degradation, researchers have suggested.
Ongoing research by a member of the Food and Land Use (FOLU) Coalition found about US$62.7 billion in net hidden health and environmental costs from the food system.
“There's actually as much as $62.7 billion in net hidden costs, meaning that the food we eat costs way more than what appears on our bills,” Romauli Panggabean from the FOLU Coalition and author of the study said recently.
She said the $62.7 billion was the gap between the $242.8 billion contribution of the agriculture and food sectors to 2018 gross domestic product (GDP) and the $305.5 billion spending on health care, environmental mitigation and many other things that are affected by the food system and dietary habits.
She said that based on her research, Indonesia had spent up to $155 billion on health care in 2018 due to problems stemming from the food system, 48 percent of which is obesity-related health problems and 26 percent is undernutrition in children. Health problems related to air pollution account for 20 percent and pesticide exposure 6 percent.
The country also spent as much as $137 billion in 2018 to mitigate the impacts of agricultural practices on the environment -- 55 percent of which is as a result of greenhouse gas emissions, 40 percent is related to water scarcity problems and 5 percent for mitigating biodiversity loss.
Romauli said she used mainly Indonesian government data from various sources from 2016 to 2018.
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