The True Price of Food is a price that would cover all costs in the production process, including all the hidden costs, with a small profit margin for economic sustainability. Since we do not know all the hidden costs, it is difficult to calculate a "true price," especially if not all steps in the production chain are financially transparent. Also, this is not how pricing in the food market works; prices are not determined just by cost but also by supply and demand. If we would calculate a "true price" by adding hidden costs to the market price, there is no direct relationship between production costs and the "true price". Actually, the resulting "true price" could still be below the production costs, if there is a large over-supply. You cannot really call that a true price. On top of that, the market mechanism for organic products is independent from that of conventional products, so the difference in "true price" between organic and conventional would not reflect True Cost differences, even at the same moment in time. Our goal is to show consumers the difference in terms of sustainability between organic products and non-organic products, and we do this by making the hidden costs visible. If we were to talk about "true prices" as opposed to True Costs, we would be suggesting that there is a direct link between production costs and store prices, which unfortunately there isn't.
