IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iuc/rpaper/1-15.html

"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

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ideas.iuctorino.it/RePEc/iuc-rpaper/1-15_Russi-Ferrando.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2015
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sasha Breger Bush, 2012. "Derivatives and Development," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-137-06265-9, October.
    2. 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).
    3. 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, Cambridge University Press, vol. 41(2), pages 377-391, August.
    4. 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.
    5. Anne E. Peck, 1985. "Futures Markets: Their Economic Role," Books, American Enterprise Institute, number 968570, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    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.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:iuc:rpaper:0001 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Baines, Joseph, 2017. "Accumulating through Food Crisis? Farmers, Commodity Traders and the Distributional Politics of Financialization," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 24(3), pages 497-537.
    3. Cornelia Staritz & Susan Newman & Bernhard Tröster & Leonhard Plank, 2018. "Financialization and Global Commodity Chains: Distributional Implications for Cotton in Sub†Saharan Africa," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 49(3), pages 815-842, May.
    4. Dimpfl, Thomas & Flad, Michael & Jung, Robert C., 2017. "Price discovery in agricultural commodity markets in the presence of futures speculation," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 5(C), pages 50-62.
    5. Ding, Haoyuan & Kim, Hyung-Gun & Park, Sung Y., 2014. "Do net positions in the futures market cause spot prices of crude oil?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 177-190.
    6. Goetz, Cole & Miljkovic, Dragan & Barabanov, Nikita, 2021. "New empirical evidence in support of the theory of price volatility of storable commodities under rational expectations in spot and futures markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    7. Mayer, Herbert & Rathgeber, Andreas & Wanner, Markus, 2017. "Financialization of metal markets: Does futures trading influence spot prices and volatility?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 300-316.
    8. Prehn, Sören & Glauben, Thomas & Loy, Jens-Peter & Pies, Ingo & Will, Matthias Georg, 2014. "The impact of long-only index funds on price discovery and market performance in agricultural futures markets," IAMO Discussion Papers 169081, Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO).
    9. repec:aen:journl:ej34-3-01 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Bassam Fattouh & Lutz Kilian & Lavan Mahadeva, 2013. "The Role of Speculation in Oil Markets: What Have We Learned So Far?," The Energy Journal, , vol. 34(3), pages 7-33, July.
    11. Anseeuw, Ward & Roda, Jean-Marc & Ducastel, Antoine & Kamaruddin, Norfaryanti, 2016. "Stratégies globales des firmes et financiarisation de l’agriculture," Selected Book Chapters, in: Estelle Biénabe & Denis Loeillet & Alain Rival (ed.), Développement durable et filières tropicales. Estelle Biénabe, Denis Loeillet, Alian Rival (eds). (2016). Quae, Versailles, France. 336 pp. ISBN 97827, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 24, pages 265-279, CIRAD, Forest department, UPR40.
    12. Areal, Francisco José & Balcombe, Kevin & Rapsomanikis, George, . "Testing for bubbles in agriculture commodity markets," Economia Agraria y Recursos Naturales, Spanish Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 16(01).
    13. Elena Kossmann & Mónica Gómez-Suárez, 2018. "Decision-making processes for purchases of ethical products: gaps between academic research and needs of marketing practitioners," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 15(3), pages 353-370, September.
    14. Prehn, S. & Glauben, T. & Loy, J.-P. & Pies, I. & Will, M.G., . "Der Einfluss von long-only-Indexfonds auf die Preisbildung und das Marktergebnis an landwirtschaftlichen Warenterminmärkten," Proceedings “Schriften der Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften des Landbaues e.V.”, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA), vol. 50.
    15. Raymond M. Leuthold, 1994. "Evaluating Futures Exchanges in Liberalising Economies," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 12(2), pages 149-164, June.
    16. Fleming, Jeff & Ostdiek, Barbara, 1999. "The impact of energy derivatives on the crude oil market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 135-167, April.
    17. repec:aen:journl:ej34-3-05 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Kübra Akyol Özcan, 2023. "Food Price Bubbles: Food Price Indices of Turkey, the FAO, the OECD, and the IMF," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-21, June.
    19. Shanker, Latha, 2017. "New indices of adequate and excess speculation and their relationship with volatility in the crude oil futures market," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 5(C), pages 18-35.
    20. Isabel Figuerola‐Ferretti & Alejandro Rodríguez & Eduardo Schwartz, 2021. "Oil price analysts' forecasts," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(9), pages 1351-1374, September.
    21. Nicole M. Aulerich & Scott H. Irwin & Philip Garcia, 2014. "Bubbles, Food Prices, and Speculation: Evidence from the CFTC's Daily Large Trader Data Files," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Food Price Volatility, pages 211-253, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Russi, L., 2012. "A Second Look at the 2007-08 Food Price Crisis: Considering the Impact of Endogenous Dynamics on Food Prices," CITYPERC Working Paper Series 2012-01, Department of International Politics, City St George's, University of London.
    23. Ron Alquist & Olivier Gervais, 2013. "The Role of Financial Speculation in Driving the Price of Crude Oil," The Energy Journal, , vol. 34(3), pages 35-54, July.

    More about this item

    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

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iuc:rpaper:1-15. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Antonio Marchisio (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ipiucit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.