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This week marked an important moment in the global campaign to regulate excessive food speculation. Speculating on food prices is a global problem and can’t be addressed in just one region alone. This week, there were major developments in all three arenas where the campaign is being fought; the G20, the US and Europe.

The G20

Last weekend the G20 finance ministers promised better regulation of commodity markets, where banks and other financial traders speculate on the price of food. WDM co-ordinated an open letter from more than 450 economists urging the finance ministers to agree to strong regulation. Unfortunately, the finance ministers backed proposals which do not go far enough to effectively curb speculation-fuelled price hikes, this was thought to be as a result of the UK blocking agreement on tougher controls. Discussions may continue at the next G20 meeting in November. 

The US

On Tuesday, the US commodities regulator voted to introduce position limits (a cap on the amount of the...

This recipe is increasingly common for consumers in global food markets. Although unpalatable, it is gaining popularity with investment bankers and hedge fund managers.

Method:

1. Take a bunch of financial regulations, cut off the good parts and water them down.

2. Measure out several thousand tonnes of grain and other staple foods and add them to global markets. 

3. Quickly pour in huge amounts of hot speculative capital from investment banks and hedge funds. 

4. Watch as basic food prices rise. 

5. Serve with fat profits and a large portion of widespread hunger, poverty and malnutrition for the world’s poorest people.

Back in the 19th century, ‘futures markets’ for crops such as maize and wheat were set up to allow US farmers and buyers of food, such as millers and bakers, to protect themselves from changing prices. In the 1930s, following the Wall Street Crash, regulations were put in place to limit the involvement in these markets of banks and other financial institutions that had no interest in the food that was being sold, but were simply out to make profits.

These regulations stayed in place until the 1990s, when they were severely weakened by lobbying from banks such as Goldman...

Eight events in towns and cities across the UK, two amazing activists from South Africa, local speakers, and countless train journeys.... our speaker tour, ‘Africa demands climate justice’ has just come to an end.

However, we were determined when planning this speaker tour that we would avoid simply creating a series of one-off events that people attended and left, feeling better informed about climate justice but taking little else away.

We aimed to galvanize people into planning actions between now and the UN climate talks in Durban, starting on 28 November. We’ve seen some really exciting discussions taking place and it’s incredible how much energy can be created in a room, when a number of like-minded people come together, fired up by the very real stories of injustice faced by poor communities in South Africa.

We know that it’s vital that WDM’s work with our allies in the global south incorporates the opportunity for UK campaigners to hear directly from southern activists. As one WDM group member said: “It's personal stories and experiences like Bongani's that keep me inspired.”

Actions discussed have included the idea of a...

As a regular reader of this blog you know that we’ve been campaigning for regulation of speculation on food prices for the last 18 months or so. We were therefore pleased to see that the topic of this year’s Blog Action Day, on 16 October, is food. 

The idea behind Blog Action Day – originally started in 2007 – is that on one day a year bloggers from around the world unite and write about one particular topic. Previous topics include water, climate change and poverty and last year 5,600 bloggers from 143 countries took part.

On the day itself WDM staff members will be blogging about food speculation. But what about you? Here are three things that you could do:

1. Write a blog post! 

After all, this is the main point of the day. Just register your blog now, then on 16 October post your blog entry on Twitter using the hashtag #BAD11. We’d love it if you were to write about food speculation and you can find lots of resources to help you on our food speculation resources web page. 

2. Take action!

Proposals to regulate food...

New rules must be adopted to restore the useful functions of these markets and to prevent excessive speculation from fuelling food price volatility. […] Oxfam calls on the US, the EU and the G20 to increase transparency adopt adequate regulation. "

So which regulation is needed? 

The first is increased transparency. At the moment, many food derivates are traded in secret. This makes it difficult for regulators and policy makers to know the exact volumes of trades and the impact they have on the market...

It’s no secret that successive UK governments have long favoured a “light touch” approach to regulating the financial sector. And it’s pretty obvious the mess that this has left us in. But until the research published this weekend by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, most people didn’t quite realise the influence of the sector over the UK’s main governing party.

Figures published by the Bureau show how the proportion of income the Conservative party receive from the City of London has grown over the past year, and now makes up more than half of the total donations it receives. And within the financial sector, more donations come from hedge funds – big players in food speculation – than any other type of contributor.

These donations dwarf the contributions made by other industries – so it’s not surprising that, despite support for action to tackle food speculation from virtually every other sector of society, from the Pope to Starbucks, the UK government is still failing to support the regulation we need to curb...

Next week, Jubilee Scotland is holding a ‘people’s debt tribunal’ at the Scottish Parliament. Lidy Nacpil, who will be coming to Glasgow to speak to WDM supporters about climate debt the following day, will attend as an expert witness from the Philippines, calling for her country’s debt to be cancelled.

I spoke to James Picardo (JP), campaigns director at Jubilee Scotland to find out more about the debt tribunal and how debt campaigners from the global south are linking the need to cancel unjust debts with climate justice.

Tell me a bit about ‘the people’s debt tribunal’. Where did the idea come from and how will it work?

JP: The idea of the debt tribunal has been around as long as the debt campaign. Many debt campaigners believe that some kind of 'debt court' will be needed to resolve the many historical cases of illegitimate and unjust debt. Until one exists, people's tribunals are the debt campaign's best form of 'direct action'.

The format is that we will have a representative of a debtor country asking for their country's debt to be cancelled, then a representative of a creditor saying why it shouldn't. Independent experts will feed in and be available for questioning by the audience. At the end people will vote on whether...

 Jessica Radford, used to be campaigns and policy intern

The influx of financial participation in the commodity markets has played a key role in causing price rises and volatility. Prices are increasingly affected by the financial markets, rather than the needs of the consumers and farmers.

As you know we are campaigning to stop banks from betting on food and consequently forcing people into poverty and hunger. The food campaign is calling for regulation, which includes restrictions to be put on speculators preventing excessive betting on food prices and futures contracts to be traded on an open exchange with the banks required to provide more information on their activities.

The Ecologist recently went to Mexico, where they spoke to people about the price of maize tripling in a short time. This is the video they produced.

In 2009, the Scottish government passed world-leading climate legislation when the Scottish parliament voted for climate change targets of 42% emissions reductions by 2020 and 80% by 2050. For a short time, Scotland made headlines, with praise for the achievement arriving from across the globe. Climate campaigners in Scotland, myself included, were especially pleased when the ‘Governator’ himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger, then Governor of California gave the Act his thumbs-up, quoted as saying that ‘Scotland’s ambitious and comprehensive targets...sends a message to the world that we must act now and we must act swiftly’.

But, three years on, would Arnie be able to say anything positive about climate action by the Scottish government since the Act was passed? Are we as climate campaigners happy to use the same e-postcards in 2011 that we designed then, with pictures of Mr. Universe himself showing off his honed physique and proclaiming ‘Scotland’s climate change act has muscle!’?

During the Scottish parliamentary debate on the climate change bill, the opposition environment spokesperson at the time, Sarah Boyack MSP, asserted that ‘Our challenge is not passing this bill but implementing it’ – a prediction that, as you might expect, has proved accurate. Since the...

Kirsty Wright, climate justice campaigner.

This June, we launched our Climate Loan Sharks report to coincide with a meeting of one of the World Bank’s climate funds, the Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience (PPCR). The fund was set up by rich donor countries such as the UK to provide finance to developing countries to help them adapt to the impacts of climate change. However the fund actually locks these countries into deeper debt by giving out finance as loans, rather than grants, in the name of tackling the impacts of climate change these countries did nothing to cause.

Meeting outcomes

The meeting of the PPCR, which took place in South Africa, was set to decide new climate loans for Cambodia, Mozambique, Nepal, St Lucia and Zambia. At the meeting the proposals for all five countries were approved; meaning that in total over $400m of new debt will be created. These countries are all already debt burdened, with two having already qualified for partial debt cancellation, highlighting the absurdity of building up this debt once again. In total, for the 11 countries that have had funding approved by the PPCR so far, over $1...

Horn of Africa food crisis

I’m sure you have all been reading in the newspapers and seeing the images on the television of desperate people flooding into the huge Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya to receive food and medical treatment for malnutrition.  Aid agencies this week are saying some 10 million people could be soon affected by malnutrition as the worst drought for 60 years hits Ethiopia, Somalia and Northern Kenya.
 

Drought and Famine

The pioneering economist Amartya Sen showed in 1981 that the relationship between drought and famine is not as simple as crops failing and people not being able to eat as a result. Looking at previous famines in the Horn of Africa, Sen found that the overall volume of food being produced within the region had barely been diminished, and it is of course widely known that the world as a whole produces more food than it needs.

Therefore Sen’s key argument was that the cause of famine and hunger is actually people’s ability to purchase food in today’s society, where market transactions have spread to every corner of the world. Drought, he argues, means cattle and crops will perish, with the result being that farmers...

Dan Iles

On the 3rd day of Nyeleni, we all took part in a meticulously coordinated action in the town of Krems, the host city of the forum. In this picture based blog post, I will explain how their use of colour, music, openness and most importantly local food to put across the idea of food sovereignty to Austrian public. This MUST come to the UK!

The March:

Setting off from the forum, we all congregated by the courtyard and then headed for the town centre. What with there being such a diverse crowd of young and old, men and women, and languages from across europe there was a lot of energy. The samba band was leading the way, which is always a great way of attracting attention from the public as well as providing a musical rhythm for the protest itself.

As we paraded around all the town's supermarkets, a dedicated team of leafleters were on the case, handing out information on the upcoming event (which I will explain about later) to every unwitting passer by. Each time we passed a supermarket we stopped, held a mini rally, handed out more flyers to the customers, and then moved on again:

Dan Iles, WDM delegate to Nyeleni Europe, explains the structure that makes the forum so exciting.

I want to try and explain a bit about the structure of the Nyeleni 2011 forum as I think it is worth emulating in future organisational structures. The way the forum is organised has been based on the way the 2007 Nyeleni forum in Mali was constructed and many of the ideas come from the global South. It has a particular emphasis on non-heirarchical and participatory structure and is dedicated to hearing the voices of a range of sub groups in society, for example young people, women, young parents, workers, producers, consumers, activists, etc. 

They have tried to give all possible groups, types of people, interests and sections of the food movement a say in the decision making process.  In this way, everyone is given a range of environments with which to express their voice and are therefore not held back by the social limiting factors that can occur in these sort of events. I hope this is of genuine interest to some people who want to organise democratic and participatory events that do not exclude people through societal imbalances such as gender,...

Last week David Cameron condemned a “culture that glorifies violence” in our inner cities. Yet next month, from 13-16 September, his government is co-organising the world’s largest arms fair in London.

During the 1990s WDM worked on a variety of arms trade issues, often with Campaign Against Arms Trade. This included a campaign to stop the use of export credits to support arms trading. The campaign led to a ban on the use of export credits for ‘unproductive’ expenditure – which includes arms sales – for over fifty low income countries in 2000. We also called for a stronger EU code of conduct on arms sales and published research which exposed the investment of Britain’s high street banks in financing the arms trade.

With other organisations, our campaigns and research on the arms trade highlighted the links between aid and arms in Indonesia and the scale of the Exports Credit Guarantee Department’s support for arms sales in Nigeria.

However, despite these few advances the UK government’s support for the arms industry is as strong as ever...

Do films motivate people any more than other kinds of campaign communication? Well, here’s one we produced on a very tiny budget aimed at informing an audience of the basic issues of our campaign to clean up the bailed out banks, in this case RBS, but also showing that campaigning on a serious issue can be imaginative, fun (dare I say zany?) and be about more than writing letters to politicians.

Does it do it for you? Have a look (it only lasts four minutes) and let us know what you think.

The G20's version of 'food security' or a global movement for a radically different food system?

Amy Horton, food speculation campaign

Today, the agriculture ministers from the G20 countries will meet in Paris to discuss food security and volatile prices. They may add their voice to the growing call for international action against speculators. But their focus is likely to be on ramping up food production, even as the UN’s top expert reminds us that the problem is more about distribution: a third of food is wasted and nearly half of cereal production goes to feed livestock.

Three quarters of the G20 delegates will be male, and only one of them African – though the continent is home to a quarter of the world’s hungry people, only South Africa is a member of this elite group.

Their rarefied meeting sits in glaring contrast to a gathering of 500 people at a purpose-built camp in the village of Nyeleni, Mali in 2007. Hailing from more than 80 countries, they were mainly food producers representing small-scale farmers, urban movements, indigenous peoples and many others. 

A different vision...

Rosa Fletcher, used to be Activism and events intern

Making a movement: WDM’s groups gathering is taking place on Saturday 17 September in Nottingham. Find out more and let us know you’re coming.

I always find it daunting taking that first step into a local group meeting, running through my head is the idea that everyone will know each other except me. However, I am always amazed at how welcoming people are towards new members in these situations.

Having been away from London and its activist scene for the past few years, I was partly scared but mostly excited to throw myself back into and meet new people whilst spotting old familiar faces. WDM’s London groups ran an event with author/activist/performance poet Danny Chivers which warmed me up and introduced me to a new crowd of local WDM members.

A few days later I decided to join London Rising Tide, the UK Tar Sands Network and Reverend Billy and & The Church of Earthalujah at the Tate Exorcism. This was a stunt to highlight BP’s twenty year sponsorship of the Tate and the continuation of BP’s fossil fuel...

Eight months ago, the world’s most powerful countries tasked the world’s most powerful institutions with investigating what to do about volatile food prices. The World Bank, IMF and others have just delivered their report to the G20.

The report is clear that there is a general consensus that speculation has amplified food price spikes, with devastating effects. But its recommendations amount to little more than a call for more research. The 925 million people who are undernourished can’t afford to wait.

The report recognises that “Food price increases can have major repercussions on the whole economy”. For example, 43 developing countries cut their taxes on imports in an attempt to lower food costs during the 2007-8 food crisis, meaning less money for essential public services. Short term price spikes can have long term impacts, such as stunting children’s growth or scaring off investors in destabilised economies.

Looking at the role of speculation, the report says:

While analysts argue about whether financial speculation has been a major factor, most agree that increased participation by … financial markets probably acted to amplify short...

Emma Rubach. This article originally appeared in The Big Issue

There’s been a lot in the press recently about the fact Britain’s aid budget is one of the few areas of public spending not facing cuts. Despite detractors wondering how we can spend money overseas when we don’t seem to have much to spend at home, the government has been vocally proud of its commitment to helping poor countries out of poverty and to reaching the Millennium Development Goals.
 

Unfortunately, a recent report by campaign group World Development Movement (WDM) suggests that while we’re giving with one hand, we could be taking away with the other, thanks to the decision to offer climate adaption loans to poor countries through the World Bank. Much like the payday loan companies who target vulnerable people in need, desperate countries on the frontline of climate change will be offered cash to help adapt to the problems climate shifts create. The World Bank appears to be offering a kindly leg-up in a time of need – but as we cash strapped folk well know, all loans have to someday be paid back.
 

As WDM points out, it’s unfair to expect developing countries whose emissions could fit into a thimble to pay for the...