Speculators are earning huge profits from betting on food prices in unregulated financial markets. This creates instability and pushes up global food prices, leaving millions of people facing hunger, malnutrition and deeper poverty.
Watch this brilliant reporting by Ed Schultz (MSNBC) on Wall Street betting on food prices (external link, embedded from youtube.com) :
Banks, hedge funds and pension funds are betting on world food prices, causing drastic price swings in staple foods such as wheat, maize and soy. In 2007-8, there was a huge rise in food prices, for example the price of wheat shot up dramatically by 80% and maize by 90%. Global food prices then fell rapidly in the second half of 2008. And its happening all over again in 2011 as food prices are now at the same levels that they were at during the height of the 2008 global food crisis.
There are real world factors that are behind some of the price rise, like the increased use of biofuels as crops or changes in crop yields caused by climate change but these are causing a gradual upward trend, the price spikes of 2007-8 and 2010-11 can only be explained by the excessive speculation in financial markets on food prices amplifying the price movements.
Food price rises hit the poorest the hardest as they spend a greater proportion of their income on food and millions are being pushed into deeper poverty. Excessive speculation needs to be regulated to stop massive price hikes in staple foods which are so disastrous for the world’s poor.
The campaign to stop bankers from betting on hunger is calling for regulation to curb excessive speculation on food prices in financial markets.
Read more :
International Call for Immediate Action on Financial Speculation on Food Commodities : Stop Gambling on Food & Hunger
UK campaign to limit commodity speculation
Regulation and supervision of (agricultural) commodity derivatives markets are being legislated in the EU
Studies and reports :
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EU reform process :
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