{
 "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1.1",
 "title": "The Ledger: what's counted, what isn't",
 "home_page_url": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/",
 "feed_url": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/cards.json",
 "description": "Federatable commons cards: counted, contested and uncounted food-system numbers, each naming who pays. CC BY 4.0. Publish your own cards in this shape to federate.",
 "language": "en",
 "authors": [
  {
   "name": "Fellowship of Living Systems",
   "url": "https://livingsys.org"
  }
 ],
 "_ledger": {
  "license": "CC BY 4.0",
  "card_fields": [
   "card_id",
   "status",
   "issuer",
   "date",
   "figure",
   "framing",
   "who_pays",
   "scale",
   "place",
   "node",
   "sources",
   "steward"
  ],
  "status_values": [
   "counted",
   "contested",
   "uncounted"
  ],
  "scale_values": [
   "personal",
   "household",
   "organization",
   "community-watershed"
  ],
  "node_map": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ball/",
  "approved_contributions": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/api/approved"
 },
 "items": [
  {
   "id": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#fao-sofa-2024",
   "url": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#fao-sofa-2024",
   "title": "The State of Food and Agriculture 2024",
   "content_text": "Hidden costs of about $12 trillion a year across 156 countries, roughly 70% from unhealthy diets. The checkout price leaves out about $12 trillion a year, mostly paid later in hospitals.",
   "date_published": "2026-10-15T00:00:00Z",
   "tags": [
    "counted",
    "food-systems",
    "global"
   ],
   "_ledger": {
    "card_id": "fao-sofa-2024",
    "status": "counted",
    "issuer": "FAO",
    "date": "2024-11",
    "figure": "Hidden costs of about $12 trillion a year across 156 countries, roughly 70% from unhealthy diets.",
    "framing": "The checkout price leaves out about $12 trillion a year, mostly paid later in hospitals.",
    "who_pays": "Households, later, in clinics.",
    "scale": "household",
    "place": "global",
    "node": "food-systems",
    "sources": [
     "https://openknowledge.fao.org/handle/20.500.14283/cd2616en"
    ],
    "steward": "Fellowship of Living Systems"
   }
  },
  {
   "id": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#fsec-global-policy-2024",
   "url": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#fsec-global-policy-2024",
   "title": "Global Policy Report",
   "content_text": "$15 trillion a year unaccounted: $11T health, $3T environment, $1T poverty. Food's off-book debt is larger than its sales.",
   "date_published": "2026-10-15T00:00:00Z",
   "tags": [
    "counted",
    "food-systems",
    "global"
   ],
   "_ledger": {
    "card_id": "fsec-global-policy-2024",
    "status": "counted",
    "issuer": "Food System Economics Commission",
    "date": "2024-01",
    "figure": "$15 trillion a year unaccounted: $11T health, $3T environment, $1T poverty.",
    "framing": "Food's off-book debt is larger than its sales.",
    "who_pays": "Taxpayers and the sick.",
    "scale": "community-watershed",
    "place": "global",
    "node": "food-systems",
    "sources": [
     "https://foodsystemeconomics.org/wp-content/uploads/FSEC-Global_Policy_Report.pdf"
    ],
    "steward": "Fellowship of Living Systems"
   }
  },
  {
   "id": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#keystone-pepsico-2026",
   "url": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#keystone-pepsico-2026",
   "title": "Mobilizing Private Investment to Scale Regenerative Agriculture",
   "content_text": "A 14-organization roundtable found the barrier is not farmer willingness. The farmer was willing; the financial system around the farm wasn't.",
   "date_published": "2026-10-15T00:00:00Z",
   "tags": [
    "counted",
    "capital-finance",
    "united-states"
   ],
   "_ledger": {
    "card_id": "keystone-pepsico-2026",
    "status": "counted",
    "issuer": "Keystone Policy Center + PepsiCo",
    "date": "2026-09",
    "figure": "A 14-organization roundtable found the barrier is not farmer willingness.",
    "framing": "The farmer was willing; the financial system around the farm wasn't.",
    "who_pays": "The paper proposes that taxpayers co-invest.",
    "scale": "organization",
    "place": "united-states",
    "node": "capital-finance",
    "sources": [
     "https://www.keystone.org/works/regenerative-agriculture-roundtable/"
    ],
    "steward": "Fellowship of Living Systems"
   }
  },
  {
   "id": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#usda-ers-err353",
   "url": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#usda-ers-err353",
   "title": "Cover-crop economics, ERR-353",
   "content_text": "Cover crops are often unprofitable in the short term; the benefits land off the farm, later. The farmer pays for cover crops this year; downstream water users collect the benefit later.",
   "date_published": "2026-10-15T00:00:00Z",
   "tags": [
    "counted",
    "soil-circularity",
    "united-states"
   ],
   "_ledger": {
    "card_id": "usda-ers-err353",
    "status": "counted",
    "issuer": "USDA Economic Research Service",
    "date": "2025-06",
    "figure": "Cover crops are often unprofitable in the short term; the benefits land off the farm, later.",
    "framing": "The farmer pays for cover crops this year; downstream water users collect the benefit later.",
    "who_pays": "The farmer, up front.",
    "scale": "organization",
    "place": "united-states",
    "node": "soil-circularity",
    "sources": [
     "https://ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details?pubid=112840"
    ],
    "steward": "Fellowship of Living Systems"
   }
  },
  {
   "id": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#cover-crops-insurance",
   "url": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#cover-crops-insurance",
   "title": "Cover crops and crop-insurance losses",
   "content_text": "Cover crops reduce crop-insurance losses from extreme weather. Premiums don't reflect it. Iowa's $5-an-acre discount helped bring in over a million cover-crop acres. The insurance pool collects a dividend that nobody books.",
   "date_published": "2026-10-15T00:00:00Z",
   "tags": [
    "counted",
    "capital-finance",
    "united-states"
   ],
   "_ledger": {
    "card_id": "cover-crops-insurance",
    "status": "counted",
    "issuer": "Aglasan et al., American Journal of Agricultural Economics",
    "date": "2024-08",
    "figure": "Cover crops reduce crop-insurance losses from extreme weather. Premiums don't reflect it. Iowa's $5-an-acre discount helped bring in over a million cover-crop acres.",
    "framing": "The insurance pool collects a dividend that nobody books.",
    "who_pays": "Taxpayer-backed crop insurance collects the dividend, uncounted.",
    "scale": "organization",
    "place": "united-states",
    "node": "capital-finance",
    "sources": [
     "https://www.choicesmagazine.org/choices-magazine/submitted-articles/interactions-between-crop-insurance-and-conservation-practices-insights-from-analysis-of-farm-survey-and-farm-program-data",
     "https://www.aaea.org/publications/publications-update/cover-crops-crop-insurance-losses-and-resilience-to-extreme-weather-events"
    ],
    "steward": "Fellowship of Living Systems"
   }
  },
  {
   "id": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#unep-food-waste-2024",
   "url": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#unep-food-waste-2024",
   "title": "Food Waste Index Report 2024",
   "content_text": "1.05 billion tonnes wasted in 2022. Only 21 countries count food waste in their climate plans. One-fifth of food reaching consumers is thrown away, and most national climate plans leave it out.",
   "date_published": "2026-10-15T00:00:00Z",
   "tags": [
    "counted",
    "food-systems",
    "global"
   ],
   "_ledger": {
    "card_id": "unep-food-waste-2024",
    "status": "counted",
    "issuer": "UN Environment Programme",
    "date": "2024",
    "figure": "1.05 billion tonnes wasted in 2022. Only 21 countries count food waste in their climate plans.",
    "framing": "One-fifth of food reaching consumers is thrown away, and most national climate plans leave it out.",
    "who_pays": "Everyone downstream of the bin.",
    "scale": "household",
    "place": "global",
    "node": "food-systems",
    "sources": [
     "https://wedocs.unep.org/items/dbe2cd4c-8384-4636-8359-5847f42b9711"
    ],
    "steward": "Fellowship of Living Systems"
   }
  },
  {
   "id": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#refed-2025",
   "url": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#refed-2025",
   "title": "From Surplus to Solutions",
   "content_text": "In the US: 73.9 million tons, $382 billion, 31% of the food supply. A $16 billion-a-year fix returns 3.8 times its cost. Most of the waste is counted now. The fix is priced, and it pays back.",
   "date_published": "2026-10-15T00:00:00Z",
   "tags": [
    "counted",
    "food-systems",
    "united-states"
   ],
   "_ledger": {
    "card_id": "refed-2025",
    "status": "counted",
    "issuer": "ReFED",
    "date": "2025-02",
    "figure": "In the US: 73.9 million tons, $382 billion, 31% of the food supply. A $16 billion-a-year fix returns 3.8 times its cost.",
    "framing": "Most of the waste is counted now. The fix is priced, and it pays back.",
    "who_pays": "Right now, everyone. The fix pays for itself.",
    "scale": "organization",
    "place": "united-states",
    "node": "food-systems",
    "sources": [
     "https://refed.org/articles/food-waste-remains-stubbornly-high-despite-signs-of-progress-according-to-new-refed-report/"
    ],
    "steward": "Fellowship of Living Systems"
   }
  },
  {
   "id": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#shi-30-farms",
   "url": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#shi-30-farms",
   "title": "Economics of soil health systems on 30 U.S. farms",
   "content_text": "Real farm ledgers from 20 states. 42% of corn farms reported yield gains. Built from actual farm books, not models.",
   "date_published": "2026-10-15T00:00:00Z",
   "tags": [
    "counted",
    "soil-circularity",
    "united-states"
   ],
   "_ledger": {
    "card_id": "shi-30-farms",
    "status": "counted",
    "issuer": "Soil Health Institute",
    "date": "2023",
    "figure": "Real farm ledgers from 20 states. 42% of corn farms reported yield gains.",
    "framing": "Built from actual farm books, not models.",
    "who_pays": "It resolves toward the farmer profiting, eventually.",
    "scale": "organization",
    "place": "united-states",
    "node": "soil-circularity",
    "sources": [
     "https://soilhealthinstitute.org/our-work/initiatives/economics-of-soil-health-systems-on-30-u-s-farms/"
    ],
    "steward": "Fellowship of Living Systems"
   }
  },
  {
   "id": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#c1-nutrient-decline",
   "url": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#c1-nutrient-decline",
   "title": "Is food losing its nutrients?",
   "content_text": "Claim: 20 to 50% declines in some nutrients since the 1960s. Challenge: real decline, or too little of the right foods? The claim and its strongest challenge, side by side.",
   "date_published": "2026-10-15T00:00:00Z",
   "tags": [
    "contested",
    "soil-circularity",
    "global"
   ],
   "_ledger": {
    "card_id": "c1-nutrient-decline",
    "status": "contested",
    "issuer": "Deep Science Ventures / Mark Leonard Trust vs AgNavigator",
    "date": "2026-10",
    "figure": "Claim: 20 to 50% declines in some nutrients since the 1960s. Challenge: real decline, or too little of the right foods?",
    "framing": "The claim and its strongest challenge, side by side.",
    "who_pays": "If the decline is real, households, in their health.",
    "scale": "household",
    "place": "global",
    "node": "soil-circularity",
    "sources": [
     "https://www.deepscienceventures.com/hollow-harvests",
     "https://www.agnavigator.com/Article/2026/10/06/are-crops-really-losing-their-nutrients-or-do-we-simply-need-to-eat-more-of-them/"
    ],
    "steward": "Fellowship of Living Systems"
   }
  },
  {
   "id": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#c2-hidden-cost-range",
   "url": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#c2-hidden-cost-range",
   "title": "How big is the hidden bill?",
   "content_text": "About $12 trillion (FAO) to $15 trillion (FSEC) a year. Different methods, same order of magnitude. Show the range, not a winner.",
   "date_published": "2026-10-15T00:00:00Z",
   "tags": [
    "contested",
    "food-systems",
    "global"
   ],
   "_ledger": {
    "card_id": "c2-hidden-cost-range",
    "status": "contested",
    "issuer": "FAO vs Food System Economics Commission",
    "date": "2024",
    "figure": "About $12 trillion (FAO) to $15 trillion (FSEC) a year.",
    "framing": "Different methods, same order of magnitude. Show the range, not a winner.",
    "who_pays": "Both agree: mostly people, through health, later.",
    "scale": "community-watershed",
    "place": "global",
    "node": "food-systems",
    "sources": [
     "https://openknowledge.fao.org/handle/20.500.14283/cd2616en",
     "https://foodsystemeconomics.org/wp-content/uploads/FSEC-Global_Policy_Report.pdf"
    ],
    "steward": "Fellowship of Living Systems"
   }
  },
  {
   "id": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#g1-ag-water-risk",
   "url": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#g1-ag-water-risk",
   "title": "Water in agriculture",
   "content_text": "No current primary benchmark of farm and food-sector water risk. Right now the best public source on agricultural water risk is a pension fund's proxy statement.",
   "date_published": "2026-10-15T00:00:00Z",
   "tags": [
    "uncounted",
    "water-watershed",
    "united-states"
   ],
   "_ledger": {
    "card_id": "g1-ag-water-risk",
    "status": "uncounted",
    "issuer": null,
    "date": null,
    "figure": "No current primary benchmark of farm and food-sector water risk.",
    "framing": "Right now the best public source on agricultural water risk is a pension fund's proxy statement.",
    "who_pays": null,
    "scale": "community-watershed",
    "place": "united-states",
    "node": "water-watershed",
    "sources": [],
    "steward": "Fellowship of Living Systems"
   }
  },
  {
   "id": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#g2-nutrient-density",
   "url": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#g2-nutrient-density",
   "title": "Nutrient density",
   "content_text": "One free primary study from 2023 to 2026, and it is contested. Replicated, paired soil-practice and nutrient data would count.",
   "date_published": "2026-10-15T00:00:00Z",
   "tags": [
    "uncounted",
    "soil-circularity",
    "global"
   ],
   "_ledger": {
    "card_id": "g2-nutrient-density",
    "status": "uncounted",
    "issuer": null,
    "date": null,
    "figure": "One free primary study from 2023 to 2026, and it is contested.",
    "framing": "Replicated, paired soil-practice and nutrient data would count.",
    "who_pays": null,
    "scale": "household",
    "place": "global",
    "node": "soil-circularity",
    "sources": [],
    "steward": "Fellowship of Living Systems"
   }
  },
  {
   "id": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#g3-waste-to-value-pl",
   "url": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#g3-waste-to-value-pl",
   "title": "Waste-to-value at commercial scale",
   "content_text": "Nobody publishes actual profit-and-loss numbers for black soldier fly, biochar or humification facilities. Operating data from a running facility would count. We intend to fill this row ourselves.",
   "date_published": "2026-10-15T00:00:00Z",
   "tags": [
    "uncounted",
    "soil-circularity",
    "global"
   ],
   "_ledger": {
    "card_id": "g3-waste-to-value-pl",
    "status": "uncounted",
    "issuer": null,
    "date": null,
    "figure": "Nobody publishes actual profit-and-loss numbers for black soldier fly, biochar or humification facilities.",
    "framing": "Operating data from a running facility would count. We intend to fill this row ourselves.",
    "who_pays": null,
    "scale": "organization",
    "place": "global",
    "node": "soil-circularity",
    "sources": [
     "https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2025.1621034/full"
    ],
    "steward": "Fellowship of Living Systems"
   }
  },
  {
   "id": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#g4-who-pays",
   "url": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#g4-who-pays",
   "title": "Who pays",
   "content_text": "True-cost accounting rarely names who carries each cost; the field's own 2026 review says so. The accountants total the bill without saying who pays it.",
   "date_published": "2026-10-15T00:00:00Z",
   "tags": [
    "uncounted",
    "capital-finance",
    "global"
   ],
   "_ledger": {
    "card_id": "g4-who-pays",
    "status": "uncounted",
    "issuer": null,
    "date": null,
    "figure": "True-cost accounting rarely names who carries each cost; the field's own 2026 review says so.",
    "framing": "The accountants total the bill without saying who pays it.",
    "who_pays": null,
    "scale": "community-watershed",
    "place": "global",
    "node": "capital-finance",
    "sources": [],
    "steward": "Fellowship of Living Systems"
   }
  },
  {
   "id": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#g5-climate-smart-commodities",
   "url": "https://gather.livingsys.org/ledger/#g5-climate-smart-commodities",
   "title": "USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities",
   "content_text": "$3.1 billion, 135 projects; cancelled April 2025; no consolidated results report will be published. An entry that was being written, then stopped.",
   "date_published": "2026-10-15T00:00:00Z",
   "tags": [
    "uncounted",
    "capital-finance",
    "united-states"
   ],
   "_ledger": {
    "card_id": "g5-climate-smart-commodities",
    "status": "uncounted",
    "issuer": null,
    "date": "2025-04",
    "figure": "$3.1 billion, 135 projects; cancelled April 2025; no consolidated results report will be published.",
    "framing": "An entry that was being written, then stopped.",
    "who_pays": null,
    "scale": "organization",
    "place": "united-states",
    "node": "capital-finance",
    "sources": [],
    "steward": "Fellowship of Living Systems"
   }
  }
 ]
}