A recent special investigation by The Ecologist magazine has highlighted an interesting link between global food poverty and famine and “food speculation”, a recent financial trading trend amongst the Big Money players.

The theory is that “speculators” (traders with no commercial interest in the commodity they are buying or selling) have the ability to increase global food prices, simply through their involvement in the stock exchange. In effect, an urbanite in London, who has never stood amidst a field of real live corn, can make a few million on corn stocks with the click of a button. Before you can say ‘popcorn’, a few thousand people in a poorer country across the globe go hungry because the boosted price of said commodity means they can’t afford to buy maize anymore. Continue reading →