Report: Who Owns Nature
Now available in English, Spanish and French
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Archive of All Our Publications: 1979 to Present
New Website Feature:
Archive of All Our Publications: 1979 to Present
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Biotechnology
A variety of techniques that involve the use and manipulation of living organisms to make commercial products. These techniques include cell culture, tissue culture, embryo transfer, and recombinant DNA technology (genetic engineering). ETC group focuses on the social and economic impacts of new biotechnologies. ETC group is not fundamentally opposed to genetic engineering, but we have profound concerns about the way it is being foisted upon the world. In the current social, economic and political context, genetic engineering is not safe, and involves unacceptable levels of risk to people and the environment. For ETC group, the fundamental issue is control.
Latest Publications
Type: News Item
Date: Apr 17, 2009
Language: English
Date: Apr 17, 2009
Language: English
Terminating Food Sovereignty in Ecuador? President opens door to Terminator seeds
Download PDF (104 KB) - about 19 seconds on a 56k modemETC Group
News Release
April 17, 2009
www.etcgroup.org
Terminating Food Sovereignty in Ecuador?
President opens door to Terminator seeds
On February 18, 2009, the Ecuadorian Congress approved a new Law on Food Sovereignty, which, among other important points, declared the country “free of transgenic crops and seeds.” However, in spite of vocal popular opposition, the legislation left the door open to approvals of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in “exceptional” cases. Now, President Rafael Correa has proposed several changes to the legislation – in what is known in Ecuador as a partial-veto – and sent it back to the Congress. The president's changes dangerously weaken the law and open the door to Terminator seeds.
Terminator technology is designed to make “suicide... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biotechnology, Terminator & Traitor
Type: News Item
Date: Jan 15, 2009
Language: English
Date: Jan 15, 2009
Language: English
For Immediate Release: "Next Generation Biofuels": Bursting The New "Green" Bubble; Letter challenges unrealistic promises from an unsustainable industry
For Immediate Release January 15, 2009
"Next Generation Biofuels": Bursting The New "Green" Bubble
Letter challenges unrealistic promises from an unsustainable industry
United States--A diverse alliance of organizations published an open letter [1] today in the U.S. and internationally warning of the dangers of industrially produced biofuels (called agrofuels by critics). The letter explains why large-scale industrial production of transport fuels and other energy from plants such as corn, sugar cane, oilseeds, trees, grasses, or so-called agricultural and woodland waste threatens forests, biodiversity, food sovereignty, community-based land rights and will worsen climate change. With the... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biotechnology, Corporate Concentration, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Intellectual Property & Patents, Synthetic Biology
Type: Communiqué
Date: Nov 12, 2008
Language: English
Date: Nov 12, 2008
Language: English
Who Owns Nature?
Download PDF (7 MB) - about 1196 seconds on a 56k modemWho Owns Nature? 
In this 100th issue of the ETC Communiqué we update Oligopoly, Inc. – our ongoing series tracking corporate concentration in the life industry. We also analyze the past three decades of agribusiness efforts to monopolize the 24% of living nature that has been commodified, and expose a new strategy to capture the remaining three-quarters that has, until now, remained beyond the market economy. To download the full 48-page report, click on 'Download PDF,' above.
Categories: BANG/Convergence, Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biotechnology, Corporate Concentration, Human Genomics, Intellectual Property & Patents, Synthetic Biology
Type: News Item
Date: Oct 09, 2008
Language: English
Date: Oct 09, 2008
Language: English
As Extreme Genetic Engineers Gather in Hong Kong, Critics Warn of Corporate Grab on Plant Life: SynBio 4.0 = SynBio-4-profit
Download PDF (138 KB) - about 25 seconds on a 56k modemETC Group
News Release
9 October 2008
www.etcgroup.org
News Release
9 October 2008
www.etcgroup.org
The Last Straw?
As Extreme Genetic Engineers Gather in Hong Kong,
Critics Warn of Corporate Grab on Plant Life
SynBio 4.0 = SynBio-4-profit
Categories: BANG/Convergence, Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biological Warfare, Biopiracy, Biotechnology, Corporate Concentration, Synthetic Biology
Type: Other
Date: Oct 09, 2008
Language: English
Date: Oct 09, 2008
Language: English
Commodifying Nature's Last Straw? Extreme Genetic Engineering and the Post-Petroleum Sugar Economy
Download PDF (414 KB) - about 74 seconds on a 56k modem
Download PDF2 (3 MB) - about 522 seconds on a 56k modemPeak oil, skyrocketing fuel costs and climate crisis are driving corporate enthusiasm for a “biological engineering revolution” that some predict will dramatically transform industrial production of food, energy, materials, medicine and all of nature. Advocates of converging technologies promise a greener, cleaner post-petroleum future where the production of economically important compounds depends not on fossil fuels – but on biological manufacturing platforms fueled by plant sugars. It may sound sweet and clean, but the so-called “sugar economy” will also be the catalyst for a corporate
grab on all plant matter – and destruction of biodiversity on a massive scale.
grab on all plant matter – and destruction of biodiversity on a massive scale.
Click on the 'Download PDF' icon above to download ETC Group's 12-page report, Commodifying Nature's Last Straw? Extreme Genetic Engineering and the Post-Petroleum Sugar Economy. (PDF2 above is a higher resolution file.)
Categories: BANG/Convergence, Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biotechnology, Corporate Concentration, Synthetic Biology
Type: Other
Date: Jun 26, 2008
Language: English
Date: Jun 26, 2008
Language: English
"Failure as Usual" Food Summit
Download PDF (457 KB) - about 82 seconds on a 56k modemJune 2008
ETC Group Translator
Ciao FAO: Another "Failure-as-Usual" Food Summit
Contrary to the opinion of many, June's Food Summit actually did something. It signaled the beginning of the end for the multilateral system as we know it. Over the next six months the food emergency - and the international institutions designed to address it - could get worse.
The full text offers a line-by-line interpretation of the Food Summit's final declaration.
Issue: During the 3-5 June 2008 World Food Summit, governments patched together sufficient funds to keep the lid on food rebellions for a few months but all the fundamental and long-term institutional and financial problems remain. In Rome, governments opted for a mythical "techno-fix" led by agribusiness in collaboration with the Gates Foundation and... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biotechnology, CGIAR, Corporate Concentration, FAO, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Intellectual Property & Patents, Public / Private Relations
Type: News Item
Date: May 21, 2008
Language: English
Date: May 21, 2008
Language: English
Captain Hook Awards for Biopiracy 2008
Download PDF (111 KB) - about 20 seconds on a 56k modem
Download PDF2 (4 MB) - about 765 seconds on a 56k modem(PDF2 above contains the complete poster)
News Release
Coalition Against Biopiracy
Wednesday, 21 May 2008
www.captainhookawards.org
www.etcgroup.org
Captain Hook Awards for Biopiracy 2008
The Coalition Against Biopiracy* exposes Hooks and celebrates Cogs
Winners announced at the UN’s Biodiversity Convention in BonnToday the world learned which corporations, governments, institutions and individuals earned a spot in biopiracy’s hall of shame when the Coalition Against Biopiracy (CAB) announced the winners of the 5th Captain Hook Awards at a lunch-time ceremony during the Ninth Conference of the Parties (COP9) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Bonn, Germany.
“The Maritim Hotel, where the CBD meets this week and next,... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biopiracy, Biotechnology, Geoengineering, Human Genomics, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Intellectual Property & Patents, Other, Synthetic Biology, Terminator & Traitor
Type: Communiqué
Date: May 13, 2008
Language: English
Date: May 13, 2008
Language: English
Patenting the "Climate Genes" ...and Capturing the Climate Agenda
Download PDF (766 KB) - about 137 seconds on a 56k modemCommuniqué
May/June 2008
Issue # 99
Patenting the “Climate Genes”…
And Capturing the Climate Agenda
Issue: The world’s largest seed and agrochemical corporations are stockpiling hundreds of monopoly patents on genes in plants that the companies will market as crops genetically engineered to withstand environmental stresses such as drought, heat, cold, floods, saline soils, and more. BASF, Monsanto, Bayer, Syngenta, Dupont and biotech partners have filed 532 patent documents (a total of 55 patent families) on so-called “climate ready” genes at patent offices around the world. In the face of climate chaos and a deepening world food crisis, the Gene Giants are gearing up for a PR offensive to re-brand themselves as climate saviours. The focus on so-called climate-ready genes is a golden... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biotechnology, CGIAR, Corporate Concentration, FAO, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Intellectual Property & Patents, Public / Private Relations
Type: News Item
Date: May 12, 2008
Language: English
Date: May 12, 2008
Language: English
News Release: Gene Giants Grab "Climate Genes"
Download PDF (115 KB) - about 21 seconds on a 56k modemETC Group
News Release
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
www.etcgroup.org
Gene Giants Grab "Climate Genes"
Amid Global Food Crisis, Biotech Companies are Exposed asClimate Change Profiteers
A report released today by Canadian-based civil society organization, ETC Group, reveals that the world's largest seed and agrochemical corporations are stockpiling hundreds of monopoly patents on genes in plants that the companies will market as crops genetically engineered to withstand environmental stresses associated with climate change - including drought, heat, cold, floods, saline soils, and more. ETC Group's report warns that - rather than a solution for confronting climate change - the promise of so-called "climate-ready"... Read More
Categories: Biotechnology, CGIAR, Corporate Concentration, FAO, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Intellectual Property & Patents, Public / Private Relations
Type: News Item
Date: Jan 24, 2008
Language: English
Date: Jan 24, 2008
Language: English
Venter Institute Builds Longest Sequence of Synthetic DNA (that Doesn’t Work)
Download PDF (144 KB) - about 26 seconds on a 56k modemETC Group
News Release
24 January 2008
www.etcgroup.org
Venter Institute Builds Longest Sequence of Synthetic DNA (that Doesn’t Work)
“It’s not how long – but how wise” cautions ETC Group
ETC Group today renewed its call for a moratorium on the release and commercialization of synthetic organisms, asserting that societal debate on the oversight of synthetic biology is urgently overdue. The renewed call came as J. Craig Venter’s research team announced that it has constructed a bacterial-length synthetic genome in the lab using mail-order synthetic DNA sequences. They’ve named the synthetic genome, Mycoplasma genitalium JCVI-1.0, and it’s similar to its counterpart in nature, a genital bacterium with the smallest known genome of any free living organism. The announcement is not... Read More
Categories: BANG/Convergence, Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biological Warfare, Biotechnology, Corporate Concentration, Synthetic Biology
Type: News Item
Date: Jan 14, 2008
Language: English
Date: Jan 14, 2008
Language: English
Organic Pioneer Says No to Nano
Download PDF (135 KB) - about 24 seconds on a 56k modem**Updated January 16th 2008**
ETC Group
News Release
14 January 2008
www.etcgroup.org
Organic Pioneer Says No to Nano
ETC Group Welcomes World’s First ‘Nano-free’ Standard
Now that you can drive your ‘nano’ car, listening to your iPod ‘nano’ while wearing ‘nano’ sunscreen and ‘nano’ clothing, the UK’s largest organic certifier has just introduced the perfect nano-antidote – a ‘nano-free’ standard for consumer products. The Soil Association – one of the world’s pioneers of organic agriculture – announced today that it is has banned human-made nanomaterials from the organic cosmetics, foods and textiles that it certifies. (1)
According to the U.S.-based Woodrow... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biotechnology, Nanotechnology
Type: Communiqué
Date: Dec 17, 2007
Language: English
Date: Dec 17, 2007
Language: English
Peak Soil + Peak Oil = Peak Spoils
Download PDF (456 KB) - about 81 seconds on a 56k modemCommuniqué
November/December 2007
Issue # 96
Peak Soil + Peak Oil = Peak Spoils
In the name of moving “beyond petroleum,” Big Oil, Gene Giants, governments, start-ups and others are forming partnerships that will extend corporate control over more resources in every part of the globe – while keeping the root causes of climate change intact. With grudging recognition that first-generation agrofuels are neither economical nor ecological, investors turn to other life-based technologies, including synthetic biology, for the next alternative fuel fix.
| Issue: In OECD countries, massive government incentives and subsidies – estimated to be as high as US$15 billion/year – are stoking... Read More |
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biotechnology, Corporate Concentration, FAO, Synthetic Biology
Type: News Item
Date: Dec 08, 2007
Language: English
Date: Dec 08, 2007
Language: English
Extreme Monopoly: Venter's Team Makes Vast Patent Grab on Synthetic Genomes
Download PDF (170 KB) - about 30 seconds on a 56k modemETC Group
News Release
8 December 2007
www.etcgroup.org
Extreme Monopoly:
Venter’s Team Makes Vast Patent Grab on Synthetic GenomesSix months ago ETC Group exposed the Venter Institute’s controversial patent applications on the world’s first human-made living organism built entirely from synthetic DNA (dubbed “Synthia” by ETC Group). Newly published patent claims reveal an even bigger grab for ownership of synthetic life.
A suite of patent applications lodged by J. Craig Venter and his colleagues claims exclusive monopoly on a wide swath of synthetic biology and demonstrate a not-so-subtle move to position Venter’s company, Synthetic Genomics, Inc., as the ‘microbesoft’ of synthetic... Read More
Categories: BANG/Convergence, Biotechnology, Intellectual Property & Patents, Other New Technologies
Type: News Item
Date: Nov 01, 2007
Language: English
Date: Nov 01, 2007
Language: English
Farmers Call for Suspension of Seed Treaty
Download PDF (116 KB) - about 21 seconds on a 56k modemFor immediate release – endorsed by the civil society and farmers’ organizations present at FAO
Thursday, 1 November 2007
Farmers Call for Suspension of Seed Treaty
Governments fail to meet minimal Treaty obligations UN conference told
Farmers’ organizations who were invited to attend a United Nations meeting on the Treaty that governs the exchange of crop seeds for research and plant breeding late yesterday told the assembled governments that the Treaty would have to be suspended. Speaking on behalf of 30 farmers’ and other civil society organizations, Ibrahima Coulibaly of ROPPA (regional farmers’ organization of West Africa) said that, “the Treaty, hosted in Rome by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), must halt the exchange of crop germplasm – the critical... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biopiracy, Biotechnology, Corporate Concentration, FAO, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Intellectual Property & Patents
Type: News Item
Date: Jun 13, 2007
Language: English
Date: Jun 13, 2007
Language: English
Suicide-Seed Sequel: EU’s “Transcontainer” Turns Terminator into Zombie
Download PDF (142 KB) - about 25 seconds on a 56k modem
Download (142 KB) - about 25 seconds on a 56k modem* also available in french*
ETC Group today releases “Terminator: The Sequel,” a Communiqué reporting on new research related to “suicide seeds” and other genetically modified (GM) seed technologies that pose unacceptable threats to farmers, biodiversity and food sovereignty.
Today ETC Group reports on a new crop of genetic engineering technologies that are being promoted as a biosafety solution to the unwanted spread of transgenes from GM crops, trees and pharmaceutical-producing plants. In practice, these technologies, if commercialized, will allow the multinational seed industry to tighten its grasp on proprietary seeds and to restrict the rights of farmers.
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biological Warfare, Biotechnology, FAO, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Intellectual Property & Patents, Public / Private Relations, Terminator & Traitor