Global Justice Milton Keynes

Food Speculation

Haddenham in Transition and WDM present the film Growing Change

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A screening of this highly relevant film will take place on

Tuesday 19 February 2013 – 8:00pm – 10:00pm

At  The Rose and Thistle Pub, Station Road,  Haddenham  HP17 8AJ

More details about the event and the film are available here

The film has additional relevance following publication of the recent report by the UK Institution of Mechanical Engineers highlighting the shocking amount of food that is wasted annually across the globe.  More information on this can be found here  along with a link to the report

Please follow these links if you wish to see more details about the Transition Movement and the World Development Movement

 

 

 

 

Important debate and vote in the European Parliament

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In October 2012 an important debate and vote took place in the European Parliament in respect of the legislation to regulate Food Speculation within the European Union.

For anyone who can make the time the recording of the debate, with translation, is available here and there is a related news update here

It gives some useful insights both into the workings of European Parliamentary sessions for anyone, like me, who hadn’t viewed them before and the issues that the re-write of the EU Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MIFID) and the related regulations (MIFIR) is aiming to address.

There are some interesting and varied contributions.  Unsurprisingly really, I found that I wanted to cheer when Arlene McCarthy MEP spoke and I wanted to jeer when Roger Helmer MEP spoke, but his sales pitch for the City of London (as remarked by the MEP who spoke after him) drew a thoughtful response from Commissioner Barnier toward the end of the debate.  There was also an interesting contribution from Jurgen Klute MEP who clearly viewed NGO involvement as very constructive and as a reality check for the parliament (I’m paraphrasing hoping that this might entice a few downloads).

Although it’s a sizeable download and listen, at approx 400Mb and 1.5 hours respectively, for anyone who is interested and able to make the time it’s worth doing I would say.  I’m sure anyone who disagrees will tell me at the next WDM AGM.

The outcome of the related vote and the considerations arising for campaigners are summarised very well in the November 2012 issue of Think Global.

 

 

A long awaited meeting

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Recently members of the MK group took part in a meeting with other WDM colleagues, at short notice, to lobby South East MEP Sharon Bowles on the need for effective regulation of food speculation.  A summary of the meeting is available here