Mission of the ETC Group

...or Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration

ETC Group is a small, international, research and action collective committed to social and environmental justice, human rights and the defence of just and ecological agri-food systems and the web of life. We are aligned with diverse popular and social movements and civil society organisations who share our values, particularly in the Global South. Together we work to understand and challenge corporate-controlled techno-industrial systems based on scientism, to expose the dangers of the technological manipulation of life and ecosystems, and to build countervailing knowledge and power.

 

We uphold:

  • Peasant and Indigenous ways of life and knowledge systems: People are interdependent with each other and with nature. Our futures are intertwined with peasant and Indigenous livelihoods, community collective self-management and knowledge systems, and collaboration between rural and urban communities. The peasant food web must be universally recognised as a fundamental component of the web of life. 
  • Food sovereignty: The industrial food and agriculture system, a source of environmental destruction, social dislocation and ill health, should be replaced with diverse ways of practising ecological agriculture and community-managed food systems based on the principles of food sovereignty and the knowledge of small-scale farmers, fishers, and rural and urban food providers across the world. 
  • People’s control of technology: The top-down imposition of technologies, including new and emerging technologies, should be replaced with precautionary and inclusive participatory assessments that are implemented at all levels of governance so that technological developments and economic systems meet the needs of communities and the planet, recognising indigenous and other technologies based on people’s collective knowledge.
  • Just economies and governance: challenge the threat that capitalism, with its focus on corporate and military-controlled technologies, poses to the web of life. Governmental decision-making processes should be determined by people, through inclusive, collaborative and participatory processes at every level.