Hard-wiring hunger: Bretton Woods Institutions and the financialisation of food systems

Over recent decades, financial actors and instruments have reshaped commodity trading, detaching price formation from physical supply and demand. Food prices are increasingly driven by financial market dynamics, meaning they can spike even when global supply remains stable. Instead of rising gradually through production and supply chains, prices are now often driven by market expectations, moving faster and further than underlying conditions would justify.

This transformation has been enabled by commodity markets deregulation in the Global North and by IMF and World Bank-backed reforms in the Global South –  including structural adjustment, market liberalisation and capital account opening – which have dismantled public food governance systems and integrated agriculture into global financial markets.  

The consequences have been far-reaching. Speculative activity has amplified major food crises, contributing to rising hunger and socio-economic instability, while major agribusiness and financial actors have profited from increased volatility. Food insecurity remains deeply gendered, with women and girls disproportionately affected due to structural inequalities in access to land, income and resources. 

In this context, the report highlights the need to re-embed food systems within public governance frameworks that prioritise food security and human rights over speculative profit.

Key findings:

• Financial actors now dominate commodity markets, weakening the link between prices and real-world supply and demand.
• Food prices are increasingly driven by financial market dynamics, meaning they can spike even when global supply remains stable.
• Speculation has amplified food crises, contributing to increased hunger and socio-economic instability.
• IMF and World Bank-backed reforms have dismantled public food governance systems and integrated agriculture into global financial market.
• Major agribusiness and financial actors have profited from volatility, while households face rising food costs.
• Food insecurity is deeply gendered, with women and girls disproportionately affected due to structural inequalities in access to land, income and resources.  

For more information about this research or BWP’s Financialisation work more broadly, please contact Mihaela Siritanu, at msiritanu@brettonwoodsproject.org