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"Capitalism A Nuh' Wi Frien'": The Formatting of Farming Into an Asset From Financial Speculation to International Aid

Author

Listed:
  • Luigi Russi

    (International University College of Turin)

  • Tomaso Ferrando

    (University of Warwick)

Abstract

This paper deciphers the formatting of farming into an asset by tracking the modalities by which financial calculation is enabled across different sites of agency. The first focus of our analysis are commodity futures markets, which have witnessed a double spike in prices in 2008 and in 2012. In the paper, we look at these hikes as the outcome of endogenous dynamics, caused by the changing makeup of market participants after 2000, which turned futures markets into resources for hedging commodity index-linked derivative products. We subsequently analyse the increasing reliance on financial actors placed by public development agencies that channel funds through private equity initiatives to acquire and invest in farmland. To complete our analysis, we finally set our contribution alongside the alternative represented by food-sovereignty, which offers the promise of heeding to the needs engendered from within the peasant milieu, as opposed to subjugating it to extrinsic quantitative metrics.

Suggested Citation

  • Luigi Russi & Tomaso Ferrando, 2015. ""Capitalism A Nuh' Wi Frien'": The Formatting of Farming Into an Asset From Financial Speculation to International Aid," IUC Research Commons 1-15, International University College of Turin.
    • Handle: RePEc:iuc:rpaper:1-15
    as

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    File URL: http://ideas.iuctorino.it/RePEc/iuc-rpaper/1-15_Russi-Ferrando.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Troester, Bernhard & Staritz, Cornelia, 2013. "Fundamentals or financialisation of commodity markets: What determines recent wheat prices?," Working Papers 43, Austrian Foundation for Development Research (ÖFSE).
    2. Irwin, Scott H. & Sanders, Dwight R. & Merrin, Robert P., 2009. "Devil or Angel? The Role of Speculation in the Recent Commodity Price Boom (and Bust)," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 41(2), August.
    3. Susan A. Newman, 2009. "Financialization and Changes in the Social Relations along Commodity Chains: The Case of Coffee," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 41(4), pages 539-559, December.
    4. Anne E. Peck, 1985. "Futures Markets: Their Economic Role," Books, American Enterprise Institute, number 968570, September.
    5. Sasha Breger Bush, 2012. "Derivatives and Development," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-137-06265-9.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. José Luis Vivero-Pol, 2017. "Food as Commons or Commodity? Exploring the Links between Normative Valuations and Agency in Food Transition," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-23, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    futures; commodities; speculation; rural sociology; human geography; land grabbing; public-private partnership; commons; social justice; political economy of development;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • O16 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State
    • Q17 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agriculture in International Trade
    • Q18 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Policy; Food Policy; Animal Welfare Policy

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