In its opinions, the EESC has developed several proposals and concrete ideas to foster more sustainable food systems. These proposals can be summarized along nine sets of recommendations, which touch upon several of the voluntary guidelines, and they can be found in the compendium of EESC opinions on sustainable food systems.
Specifically, Guideline 4 Market systems could be strengthened. In this opinion Food price crisis: the role of speculation and concrete proposals for action in the aftermath of the Ukraine war (NAT/873), the EESC draws attention to the global food price crisis, which has been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, leading to supply disruption of vital food items and stresses that the crisis is not only due to the conflict but to structural and systemic problems that create hunger and threaten people's livelihoods globally.
Food should not be treated as a financial asset as it is not a commodity like many others. While recognizing that the issue of food prices and speculation is highly complex where the causality has to be investigated further, the EESC considers that the current structure of the commodities market is not delivering for the "sustainable economy we need" and for the objectives linked to sustainable development, climate ambition and just transition enshrined in the UN Agenda 2030 and the European Green Deal - but actively works against them. It undermines the efforts to solve hunger, foster fair revenues for farmers and workers and fair prices for consumers, as well as protect small and medium food processors and the retail sector from the risks of rising inflation. It must therefore be changed through regulation in order to contribute to people's wellbeing and societal development for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Bearing in mind that the EU is already the most regulated market, it is evident that, to be effective, such regulation should be extended at global level.
The EESC further highlights the need to deal with concentration in food chains and financial ownership (global physical grain trade is highly concentrated) and notes that high and fast-rising prices and secrecy about stock holdings create uncertainty and fan fear and panic, which in their turn and especially during times of high uncertainty, such as in the aftermath of the Ukraine war, drive excessive price levels and volatility as speculative traders, jumping on the bandwagon of the price boom, dominate the market.
Therefore, the EESC calls on Member States and EU institutions to enhance market transparency and take the necessary steps to curb excessive commodity speculation, in particular by:
- Regulating the futures market, eg by re-introducing a regulated market for food derivatives, introducing strict price movement curbs and daily position limits as soon as trading activities on the commodity futures markets show abnormalities; limiting access to derivative/hedging to qualified and knowledgeable investors and traders who are genuinely concerned about the underlying agricultural commodities introducing short/medium/long term contract obligations to add stability; and incentivising withdrawal of financial speculation in food commodities by banks and fund companies.
- Regulating indexes (commodities indexes and food indexes), eg by regulating and banning commodity index funds and replication via swaps and exchange traded products; stopping public funds / mutual funds to actors involved in food speculation banning soft commodities (e.g. funds, ETFs) allocated in portfolios of institutional actors (e.g. pension funds, insurances).
- Addressing the financialization of the food sector as massive money-making off the backs of people, e.g. by introducing windfall taxation on excess profits before dividends of corporations and a food speculation tax to curb high frequency trading and breaking oligopolies at all levels of the chain and financial interests.
In addition to the above, in its contribution towards the COP28, the EESC sees the urgency of creating a new narrative that should aim to increase policy coherence, build more democratic and rights-based governance and principles, and ensure that finance goes in the right –and equitable – direction.
The financialization of the climate agenda is not new, nor is the financialization of the agri-food system. But the role of finance has expanded across the value chain. This means in practice that the new Joint Work should focus on:
• prioritizing climate adaptation and mitigation rather than financial needs;
• addressing the financial sector and its responsibilities in profiting from agri-food systems and activities (such as food speculation) that are incompatible with the Paris Agreement and the SDG objectives;
• addressing the food-system-related implications of large-scale investments so that they do not create further opportunities for speculators, in particular when linked to the market for carbon credits;
• assessing the nature and purpose of "climate-smart" investments in agriculture;
• scrutinizing the socio-economic implications of farmers' financial inclusion, in particular when associated with the distribution derivative and insurance products that are bound to specific agricultural practices and transnational value chains.
Please find attached the European Economic and Social Committee's submission form (full text), including links to specific references.
Mme Myrto KOLYVA