World food prices grew strongly from 2003, but fell sharply after the 2008 onset of the global financial crisis. Since then, however, prices have rebounded and by mid-2011 reached even higher levels. The World Bank estimates more than 40 million people have been pushed into extreme poverty as a result, while political pressures have been felt not only in the ‘Arab Spring’ countries but also across sub-Saharan Africa and beyond. Alex Cobham is Chief Policy Adviser at Christian Aid, and was formerly a researcher and tutor in economics at the University of Oxford. Christian Aid works in more than 40 countries to support civil society organisations working against poverty, and at a global level seeks to challenge and change the structures and systems that cause and exacerbate poverty. Alex explores the role of commodity markets in distorting food prices. While short-termist financial ‘speculators’ are often blamed, it may be that large institutional investors like pension funds are inadvertently playing the key role.
2011 Cafes
- Can the EU survive the crisis?
- The Financialisation of Food: Commodity Markets And Human Hunger
- Pakistan: A failing and dangerous state?
- A Scramble for Resources? The contemporary geopolitics of the Arctic
- Khadafi, Fleet Street and Libya’s fluctuating relationship with the West
- Indonesia and the promise of democracy in the Muslim world
- A steady-state economy: Should we? Could we?
- Why we should document every casualty of conflict
- Algeria and the impact of the Jasmine Revolution
- Dangerous banks: can we tame them?
- Crisis in Kyrgyzstan & the struggle for the control of Central Asia
- Saudi Arabia – What’s wrong with its relationship with the West
- Privatisation of public services: what’s wrong with it?
- Sarah Palin : why is she so popular?