Food speculation

The World Development Movement (WDM) has said proposals to establish three new European banking regulators could help prevent food crises, as wheat price rises fuelled by financial speculation trigger bread riots in Mozambique.

16 October, Margate

Conference hosted by the Thanet Fairtrade Foundation on food security, the global environmental impacts of UK food consumption and the relationships between food, finance and climate change.

Banks, hedge funds and pension funds are betting on food prices in the financial markets, causing drastic price swings in staple foods such as wheat, maize and soy.

Massive price hikes are catastrophic for the world’s poor, who spend most of their income on food, and lead to:

Wheat prices have hit a two year high. Prices are again climbing steeply for wheat and, despite claims by some analysts in the media, there is plenty of wheat available and talk of global shortages is unfounded.

The last time prices were higher, there was a food crisis and people were going hungry across the developing world, whilst in the US and UK people were paying more for their weekly shop.

Yesterday afternoon, James, Kiama Kaara from Kenya Debt Relief Network and I drove to Thika, a medium-sized town 40km north east of Nairobi along a bustling road lined with traders, construction workers and shops for a meeting with Zachary Makanya from the PELUM Association.

Ingredients
1 full page article in the Guardian newspaper
1 interview on BBC Radio 4 Today programme
1 interview on BBC Newsnight
10 articles across other newspapers
31 articles online
900 sign ups to a phone action,
65 comments on our website

Take all the ingredients and combine well to create heat and froth.

Thank you for calling the Financial Services Authority (FSA) during our week of action (19th - 23rd July) and asking them to rein in the irresponsible food gambling by Goldman Sachs and other banks like them.

The European Commission and the French and US governments have all said they want to bring food speculation into the open and regulate it to stabilise prices. We need to you to help pressure the UK government to ensure that it backs proposals for regulation and not to take sides with the banks to block reform.

By Kate Blagojevic

Today, we launched a report showing how banks speculate on foods causing their price to rocket, increasing hunger in developing countries. Yesterday the Mail on Sunday revealed that a hedge fund bought over 250,000 tonnes of cocoa beans, a move designed to make millions for the hedge fund but losses for people in the UK who are partial to a Twix or farmers in developing countries who are finding it impossible to plan what to grow when the prices are rising and falling like a yo-yo.

* New report: Gambling by banks like Goldman Sachs increased food prices

* UK must 'back, not block' new banking reform in Europe, say campaigners

* Over 800 people have pledged to call the FSA to demand action to stop banks gambling on food