True cost of rice in the Philippines: retail price hides climate and environmental damages

A new analysis of Philippine rice production finds that the true societal cost of conventionally grown rice is roughly PHP 446 to PHP 516 per kilogram, about nine to ten times the October 2026 retail price of PHP 49.79. The gap comes largely from unpriced greenhouse gas emissions, water depletion, and ecosystem damage. The study updates an earlier 2021 true cost accounting assessment using the U.S. EPA's revised social cost of carbon of $239 per metric ton of CO2 in 2026 dollars. Organic rice shows a much lower societal cost of around PHP 231 per kilogram, even though it often sells for more at market. The authors note that biodiversity loss, pesticide health impacts, and soil degradation remain undercounted, so the conventional rice figure is likely conservative. For policymakers, the takeaway is that cheap rice at the store does not mean cheap rice for society, and current import and price stabilization policies do not address the externalized costs.