The Global Food Crisis: The Role of the UN in Humanitarian Assistance

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nishanie Ann Marie Jayamaha
Keyword(s):  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
Food Crisis ◽  
Global Food ◽  
Global Food Crisis

Food Commodity Speculation

2019 ◽  
pp. 79-106
Author(s):  
Anna Chadwick
Keyword(s):  
Financial Regulation ◽  
Food Crisis ◽  
The Social ◽  
Commodity Futures Markets ◽  
Financial Speculation ◽  
Commodity Derivatives ◽  
Food Commodity ◽  
Global Food ◽  
Global Food Crisis

Chapter 3 explores the significance of practices of ‘food commodity speculation’ in the causation of the global food crisis. After introducing some of the main instruments and actors involved in commodity derivatives trading, the chapter examines competing claims over the role of financial speculation in the global food crisis. Seeking to break the impasse that has characterized debates on this issue, the chapter probes into claims by NGOs that commodity futures markets have been ‘financialized’ in recent decades. The author draws on a body of literature from the Social Studies of Finance to argue that there is an urgent need to reconceptualize the nature of derivatives and their contribution to processes of value formation in underlying markets. The chapter concludes by signalling the emergence of a new logic of financial accumulation that has significant implications both for attempts to use financial regulation to address ‘excessive’ levels of speculation, and, more broadly, for the political economy of hunger.

Changing behavior as a policy tool for enhancing food security

Water Policy ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (S1) ◽  
pp. 106-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdy A. Hefny
Keyword(s):  
International Markets ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Food Crisis ◽  
Policy Tool ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Reports ◽  
Traditional Approaches ◽  
Global Food ◽  
Global Food Crisis

Recent developments in international markets point to a dramatic food crisis all over the world. The media today is repeatedly dominated by staggering reports on the global food crisis, soaring crop prices and demands for bio-fuels, raising fears of political instability. Since 2002, media reports have mostly highlighted the dramatic situation of food insecurity. The Arab region is most seriously affected by the global food crisis. It is clear that the root causes of ‘the Arab springs’ and revolutions underway in various Arab countries are not only a desire for transformation to a more democratic political system but also desire for the realization of social justice among citizens, the eradication of poverty and hunger, and a narrowing of the gap between rich and poor. This paper addresses the need for a change in individual and societal behavioral patterns. It addresses the need for communities to assist governments in preventing and managing water-related food crises. It brings together world waters in its complexities, with new dimensions of institutional context and cultural norms. The effectiveness of ongoing traditional approaches may be limited without additional measures and tools to help governments understand how to engage in cooperative behavioral change.

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