France: Peasants against neoliberalism and financial speculation
On May 5th, peasants leaders from all over France, organized within the Confédération Paysanne, gathered in front of the Paris headquarters of the American agribusiness giant Cargill. The peasants demanded an end to its mercantile strategy based on speculation on agricultural raw materials and the massive production of agrofuels, a recipe that has sown hunger in the world and prevents people from accessing food sovereignty.
To learn more about the different problems that peasants are facing due to agrobussinnes, we propose you an article and a video recently published on the Confédération Paysanne website.
Action “Stop the speculation on cereals” on May 5 at La Défense
Speculation, free trade and agrofuels; these are the evils of hunger that we wanted to denounce this Thursday, May 5, in front of the headquarters of Cargill France in the heart of the business district of La Défense
Emmanuel Clévenot/Reporterre
In the continuity of its General Assembly of Thursday, May 5th, the Confédération Paysanne went to the business district of La Défense to point out the root causes of hunger: speculation, free trade and agrofuels.
The protestors gathered in front of the headquarters of Cargill, the world’s number one trader of agricultural commodities. This non-transparent and overpowering multinational, with a turnover of 130 billion dollars, is taking advantage of the neoliberal laxity of the globalized markets. No food sovereignty is possible with these free trade rules, of which Cargill is an emblem.
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, speculation on agricultural prices has increased dramatically. The soaring agricultural prices have dramatic impacts for the populations and the pastoral farmers. However, the volatility of agricultural prices is not inevitable.
To build food sovereignty throughout the world, we demand three major measures :
- The end to speculation on food
- Market regulation (public stocks, transparency of stocks, economic protection of peasants and domestic markets, price control of essential goods…)
- The stop of agrofuels, which contributes to the rise of food prices and hunger riots
Free trade starves, peasant agriculture feeds!
Let’s regulate prices to end hunger!
Interview of our spokesman Nicolas Girod on Terre-Net HERE
Text by the Confédération Paysanne