Cambridge 7 | Test 2 | Passage 2

The True Cost of Food

For more than forty years the cost of food has been rising. It has now reached a point where a growing number of people believe that it is far too high, and that bringing it down will be one of the great challenges of the twenty first century. That cost, however, is not in immediate cash. In the West at least, most food is now far cheaper to buy in relative terms than it was in 1960. The cost is in the collateral damage of the very methods of food production that have made the food cheaper: in the pollution of water, the enervation of soil, the destruction of wildlife, the harm to animal welfare and the threat to human health caused by modern industrial agriculture.

collateral damage (noun) [uncountable]

during a war, the unintentional deaths and injuries of people who are not soldiers, and damage that is caused to their homes, hospitals, schools, etc.

enervation (noun) [uncountable] (formal)

​the feeling of being weak and tired

welfare (noun) [uncountable]

physical and mental health and happiness, especially of a person