Take a stand against betting on hunger… again

Date: 30 October 2015

Lady Luck, roulette wheels, gamblers anonymous – just some of the creative ways we used to show how banks were betting on hunger. Our campaign won new rules to tackle the extremes of financial speculation on the most basic of needs. But now almost two years later, the European measures that were agreed are now at risk of being severely watered down.

Our campaign was launched in response to the global food crisis of 2007-8, which saw soaring food prices, leaving millions hungry and food riots sweeping through major cities across the world.

A key driver behind the surge in food prices was excessive speculation on prices in the financial markets by investment banks and hedge funds. As millions were going hungry, banks raked in the profits.

After four years of campaigning, legislation was agreed in January 2014 to introduce measures to tackle excessive food speculation. Since then the European Commission has been working on the implementation of the legislation and has only recently published its proposals.

Unfortunately its proposals would lead to a massive watering down of the measures that would tackle excessive food speculation and continue to leave millions across the world, vulnerable to volatile and unstable food prices.

Our previous campaign helped to mobilised hundreds of thousands of people across UK and Europe. It’s time to remind European decision makers that we haven’t gone away and that we still want people’s needs to be put before profits.

We have launched a new action, calling on the parliamentary negotiators – who are overseeing the implementation – to reject weak proposals and instead stand up for strong, effective rules.