Windfall tax on Covid profits could ease ‘catastrophic’ food crisis, says Oxfam

Gabriela Bucher, the executive director of Oxfam, spoke at the Covering Climate Now coalition at the Guardian’s offices in London. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

Food, fossil fuel and pharmaceutical companies that have enjoyed bumper profits in the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath should be hit with a swingeing windfall tax on their excess income, the global head of Oxfam has said.

A windfall tax of 90% on the excess profits globally would yield about $490bn that could be used to solve the food crisis, which is heading to “catastrophic levels” for hundreds of millions of people, and set the world on the path to a sustainable food system, said Gabriela Bucher, executive director of Oxfam International.