If...

A new campaign If… on hunger and food security has launched, run by a group of development organisations. WDM has decided not to join this campaign.

WDM campaigns to tackle the root causes of poverty and injustice. Our current campaign on food goes to the heart of one of the problems with our food system: the power of the financial sector and the role of commodity speculation in causing food price spikes. We are also actively engaging with and contributing to a long term vision and solution – food sovereignty – guided by our allies in the global south.

As a small organisation, we do not have any additional campaign capacity to contribute to a food campaign with a different focus. The If... campaign is concerned with food security - ensuring people have enough to eat. However it will not be challenging the power and impact of the financial system on food prices, nor is it grounded in the principles of food sovereignty. WDM believes that these principles, which are about power, control and rights, must underpin future changes to our food systems.

We welcome many of the campaign demands in the If... campaign - for example those around tax havens, biofuels and landgrabbing. We encourage WDM members and supporters to take action on these and other structural problems with the food system.

You can read more detail about this in this blog written by our Director Deborah Doane published on the Guardian website.