Speculating on Hunger

[polly7]

Speculating on Hunger

http://www.zcommunications.org/speculating-on-hunger-by-jean-ziegler

By Jean Ziegler

Source: Le Monde DiplomatiqueMonday, March 12, 2012

How to control global food commodity trading

"Financial speculators invested in food futures even before the great crash of 2008, driving up food prices to dangerous levels. This can and must be stopped.
The asphalt road was straight and monotonous. Baobab trees passed one after the other, and the earth was yellow and dusty, despite the early hour. The air in the old black Peugeot was stifling. I was travelling north, towards Senegal’s big plantations, with Adama Faye, an agronomist and overseas development adviser to the Swiss embassy, and his driver Ibrahima Sar. We wanted to assess the impact of financial speculation on food, and we had the latest statistics from the African Development Bank. But Faye knew that a different kind of evidence was waiting for us. In the village of Louga, 100km from Saint-Louis, the car stopped abruptly. “Come and see my little sister,” Faye said. “She doesn’t need your statistics to explain what’s going on.”

There were a few stalls at the side of the road, a meagre market: mounds of cow peas and cassava, a few chickens clucking in cages, peanuts, wrinkled tomatoes, potatoes, and Spanish oranges and clementines. No mangoes, although Senegal is famous for them. Behind a stall, a young woman in a yellow kaftan and headscarf chatted with her neighbours. She was Faye’s sister Aisha. She was keen to answer questions, and got angry as she talked. Before long a noisy crowd of children, young people and old women had gathered around us................"

Alarm in the US Senate

"Speculation in food has increased following the financial crisis: turning their backs on the mess they had created, speculators — particularly hedge funds — moved into agricultural markets. To them, all the planet’s resources are fair game for speculation, including basic foods such as rice, maize and wheat, which together make up 75% of global food consumption (50% for rice). According to the FAO’s 2011 report, only 2% of futures contracts for raw materials end with the actual delivery of the product. The other 98% are traded by speculators before their expiry date........"

[russspeakeasy]

1. It must be stopped, but it won't be.

Even some here claim it is pure supply and demand.....some even have charts....to prove their point.