Don’t cry over spilled Nutella – Cry over hunger!
Date: 11 April 2013
Today’s Guardian website features an article about “food crime” mentioning thieves who stole five tonnes of Nutella in Germany as a key example. But at the same time, food prices remain at close to record levels as bankers speculate on food, resulting in falling living standards in the UK and in hunger elsewhere. It makes you wonder: What is the real food crime here? Depriving a few people of Nutella or forcing millions into starvation?
Personally, I am in no doubt that global hunger is a more urgent issue than some missing chocolate spread, and that it should therefore be a main priority to solve the problem of bankers’ apparent addiction to gambling on food. Unfortunately the UK government seems to be of a different opinion.
On average, treasury ministers are wined and dined by bankers or financial lobbyists every ten days. And the result? The UK is currently trying to water down new EU regulations restrict food speculation. We need to change that.
Now it is time for you to dine with the Treasury
This week we’ve launched step four of our Bankers Anonymous campaign in the fight to cure bankers of their addition to gambling on food. Of course we ‘common people’ do not have the privilege of inviting treasury ministers for dinner to tell them our side of the story. So instead we’d like to invite you to send a ‘virtual’ meal to Greg Clark, the minister with responsibility for food speculation. Simply follow this link, select a picture from our food gallery, and send it.
Greg Clark can make a decision to ensure the UK supports tough new European rules to tackle food speculation. Together, we can make sure that he knows the consequences a lack of regulation will have for the billion people already hungry and the hundreds of millions that are at risk of hunger if food prices continue to rise.
It is time that the real issues affecting food get priority. We cannot run around chasing Nutella thieves while allowing big banks to devastate hundreds of millions of lives by gambling our money on food.
