ETC Group Activities at World Social Forum 2016!

ETC Group is coming to Montreal, QC, for the World Social Forum! You can download our schedule below. We are excited to share, learn and strategize with friends and allies—hope to see you there! 

August 10, 2016

The Corporate Strategy to Control the Food System 

ETC Group, La Vía Campesina, Global Justice Now

9:00-11:30 | Université du Québec à Montréal – Pavillon A (Local A-2830) | EN, FR

If proposed mega-mergers in the agricultural input sector go forward, three companies will control over 60% of commercial seed and pesticide sales worldwide. This would not only increase input prices for farmers, but also would signal a foreboding shift with effects that ripple up and down the food chain. We invite civil society and social movement actors to discuss the realistic possibility of blocking these mergers and widening the debate on the future of the industrial food chain. 

Climate Change: Crisis or Collapse?

Climate Space, Attac France, Critical Information Collective, Fundación Solon – Bolivia, Global Forest Coalition, ETC Group

13:00-15:30 | Université du Québec à Montréal – Pavillon DE (Local DE-1560) | EN, FR

What is happening now with climate change for communities? How are democracy, militarism and productivism being reshaped in light of the booming climate crisis? ETC Group will discuss geoengineering and false technology solutions to climate change with our allies in this panel. Theoretical techno-fixes like solar radiation management satisfy fossil fuel industry and major governments, but all studies to date show that geoengineering will exacerbate the impacts of climate change in climate-vulnerable regions. These false solutions must (and can!) be stopped. 

Mobilizing Against Corporate Control Over Land, Food and Seeds, & Building Alternatives

USC Canada, ETC Group, Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN), GRAIN, Global Justice Now, Coalition for the Protection of African Genetic Heritage, National Farmers Union (Canada)

13:00-15:30 | Université McGill, Pavillon Mass (Local 112 ) | EN 

Corporations are grabbing land and seeds from farmers, local communities and indigenous peoples as they aim to take control over every part of our food system. This workshop will expose the major trends of corporate control in global food and farming. Join us to share and discuss resistance strategies and alternatives that build food sovereignty.

August 11, 2016 

After GMOs: Extreme Genetic Engineering

ETC Group with comments from La Vía Campesina and Canadian Biotechnology Action Network

9:00-11:30 |  Université du Québec à Montréal – Pavillon DE (Local DE-1540) | EN, FR

The synthetic biology industry and scientific press are celebrating the development of gene editing techniques (e.g. CRISPR-Cas9 and ‘gene drives’) that allow scientists to edit and permanently alter the genetic make-up of entire species. These “new breeding technologies” could represent a greater threat to biological diversity and food security than even Terminator (suicide) seeds. This side-event will provide the latest data and information; project scenarios; and offer practical alternatives.

 

Date: 
Tuesday, August 9, 2016 (All day) to Sunday, August 14, 2016 (All day)