Food speculation
Food speculation is betting on food prices in unregulated financial markets. Food speculation by global players like banks, hedge funds or pension funds can cause price swings in staple foods such as wheat, maize and soy.
For the actors, those apparently random swings are predictable, which means potential promise huge profits. For the global poor, food speculation may result in increased poverty or even famine.[1]
In contrast to food hoarding, speculation does not mean that real food shortages or scarcity need to be evoked, the price changes are only due to trading activity.
The 2007–08 world food price crisis is thought to be partially caused by speculation.
References
External links
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, April 12, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.