The Food Ethics Council has chosen the second week of Fairtrade Fortnight to call for a root and branch shake up of the finance systems that fund agriculture and horticulture globally.
The council’s spring edition of its Food Ethics magazine, Food and finance: trading security, examines how finance might harm future food security, and what a fair finance system might look like.
One contributor to the magazine looks in particular at the large multi-nationals, including banana traders, and claims that their operation of food companies, operating “tax-efficient supply chains”, is denying poor countries around $160 billion (£106bn) in lost tax revenue.
Tom MacMillan, Food Ethics Council executive director, said: “Governments need to recognise that food security depends on financial regulation. Finance must slow down if it’s to support secure and sustainable food systems. That means controls on commodity trading and promoting slow-burn investments promising long-term rewards. Fairtrade makes a difference to millions of farmers and their dependants in the global south. But to make an even bigger difference fair finance, from commodity investment to micro-credit, must become the norm.”
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