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Cultural Diversity
Latest Publications
Date: Mar 07, 2008
Language: English
The Coalition Against Biopiracy today calls for nominations for the Fifth Captain Hook Awards
Download PDF (320 KB) - about 57 seconds on a 56k modemNews Release
Coalition Against Biopiracy
7 March 2008
www.captainhookawards.org
Ahoy, Mates! The Coalition Against Biopiracy today calls for nominations for the Fifth Captain Hook Awards
*** Please Circulate to Your Networks throughout the Seven Seas ***
What's the most scandalous case of biopiracy[1] in your country? Who's ripping off indigenous knowledge in your community? Which privateer is most egregiously pillaging the global commons for profit? Who's monopolizing your genes or patenting your plants?
Nominate your least favorite pirate for a 2008 Captain Hook Award. All outrageous achievements in biopiracy deserve recognition!
Nominate your most admired biopiracy-resistor for a 2008 Cog... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biopiracy, Cultural Diversity, Intellectual Property & Patents, "New Enclosures", Public / Private Relations
Date: Mar 03, 2008
Language: English
Direct-to-Consumer DNA Testing and the Myth of Personalized Medicine: Spit Kits, SNP Chips and Human Genomics
Download PDF (651 KB) - about 116 seconds on a 56k modemETC Group
3 March 2008
www.etcgroup.org
Special Report on Human Genomics, Part I
Direct-to-Consumer DNA Testing and the Myth of Personalized Medicine:
Spit Kits, SNP Chips and Human Genomics
In the coming months, ETC Group will publish a series of reports on the impact and implications of human genomics. The topic of the first report in the series is the burgeoning Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) genetic testing industry, which is promising consumers a guidebook for maintaining health as well as a gene-based horoscope predicting future illness. The second report will examine large-scale human genomics... Read More
Categories: Cultural Diversity, Human Genomics, Public / Private Relations
Date: Aug 16, 2006
Language: English
Monsanto Acquires Delta & Pine Land and Terminator
Download PDF (416 KB) - about 74 seconds on a 56k modem
Download (162 KB) - about 29 seconds on a 56k modemNews Release
ETC Group
16 August 2006
www.etcgroup.org
www.banterminator.org
Monsanto Announces Takeover of Delta & Pine Land and Terminator Seed Technology (again)
In a quest to expand its corporate seed empire - Monsanto, the world's largest seed enterprise - announced yesterday that it will buy the world's leading cotton seed company, Mississippi-based (USA) Delta & Pine Land, for US$1.5 billion. Monsanto and Delta & Pine Land (D&PL) together account for over 57% of the US cotton seed market. With D&PL subsidiaries in 13 countries - including major markets such as China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey and Pakistan - the takeover means that Monsanto will command a dominant position in one of the world's most important agricultural trade commodities and that millions of cotton farmers will be... Read More
Categories: Biopiracy, Biotechnology, CGIAR, Corporate Concentration, Cultural Diversity, FAO, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Intellectual Property & Patents, "New Enclosures", Terminator & Traitor
Date: May 17, 2006
Language: English
Backgrounder: Open Letter on Synthetic Biology
Download PDF (148 KB) - about 26 seconds on a 56k modemBackground Document
Synthetic Biology - Global Societal Review Urgent!
Synthetic biology (the attempt to create artificial living organisms) should be self-regulated say scientists at Berkeley assembly. Civil Society organizations say "No!"
"If biologists are indeed on the threshold of synthesizing new life forms, the scope for abuse or inadvertent disaster could be huge." Nature, October 2004
Scientists working at the interface of engineering and biology - in the new field of "synthetic biology" - worry that public distrust of biotechnology could impede their research or draw attention to regulatory chasms. Synthetic biologists are trying to design and construct artificial living systems to perform specific tasks, such as producing pharmaceutical compounds or energy. In October 2004, the journal... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biological Warfare, Biotechnology, Corporate Concentration, Cultural Diversity, Human Genomics, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Intellectual Property & Patents, Nanotechnology, "New Enclosures", Synthetic Biology
Date: Mar 29, 2006
Language: English
Captain Hook Awards for Biopiracy 2006
Download PDF (176 KB) - about 31 seconds on a 56k modemThe Coalition Against Biopiracy exposed the globe's nastiest biopirates and rewarded the most steadfast resistors at the Captain Hook Awards on 24 March during the meeting of the 8th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Curitiba, Brazil. This ETC Group Communique provides a detailed description of the 2006 award winners.
Categories: Biopiracy, CGIAR, Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Cultural Diversity, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Terminator & Traitor, Biotechnology, Human Genomics, Nanotechnology, Corporate Concentration, Intellectual Property & Patents, "New Enclosures", Public / Private Relations
Date: Mar 22, 2006
Language: English
News Release: Ban Terminator Campaign -- Terminator Seed Battle Begins: Farmers Face Billions of Dollars in Potential Costs
Download PDF (134 KB) - about 24 seconds on a 56k modemBan Terminator Campaign
News Release
www.banterminator.org
22nd March 2006
Terminator Seed Battle Begins:
Farmers Face Billions of Dollars in Potential Costs
Curitiba, Brazil. After a week that has seen a worldwide mobilisation against Terminator technology, the issue of Suicide Seeds is about to hit the negotiating floor of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meeting in Curitiba, Brazil. Known to the CBD as GURTs (Genetic Use Restriction Technologies), Terminator crops are genetically modified to create sterile seeds at harvest so that farmers must buy new seed every season. Today the Ban Terminator Campaign, a global coalition of over 500 organisations, released new financial calculations indicating that Terminator seeds will impose a burden of billions of extra dollars in seed costs on some of the world's poorest nations.... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biopiracy, Biotechnology, CGIAR, Corporate Concentration, Cultural Diversity, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Intellectual Property & Patents, "New Enclosures", Other, Public / Private Relations, Terminator & Traitor
Date: Jan 27, 2006
Language: English
Granada's Grim Sowers Plow Up Moratorium on Terminator, Clear the Path for its Approval at UN
Download PDF (117 KB) - about 21 seconds on a 56k modem
Download PDF2 (100 KB) - about 18 seconds on a 56k modemETC Group
Ban Terminator Campaign
News Release
27 January 2006
www.etcgroup.org
www.banterminator.org
Granada's Grim Sowers
Plow up Moratorium on Terminator,
Clear the Path for its Approval at UN
Terminator Opponents Prepare for Battle
at COP8 in Curitiba, Brazil March 20-31, 2006
Indigenous peoples were betrayed and Farmers' Rights trampled at a UN meeting this week when the Australian, New Zealand and Canadian governments - guided by the US government and a brazen cabal of corporate Gene Giants - took a major step to undermine the existing moratorium on Terminator technology (i.e., plants that are genetically modified to produce sterile seeds at harvest). The damaging recommendations from the meeting in Granada, Spain, now go to the upcoming 8th biennial meeting of the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biopiracy, Biotechnology, Corporate Concentration, Cultural Diversity, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Intellectual Property & Patents, "New Enclosures", Public / Private Relations, Terminator & Traitor
Date: Jan 20, 2006
Language: English
Terminator Threat Looms: Intergovernmental meeting to tackle suicide seeds issue
Download PDF (132 KB) - about 24 seconds on a 56k modemETC Group
News Release
20 January 2006
www.etcgroup.org
Terminator Threat Looms:
Intergovernmental meeting to tackle suicide seeds issue
CBD's Working Group on 8(j) Meets in Granada, Spain 23-27 January
Indigenous peoples, farmers' organizations and civil society representatives are bracing to defend a de facto United Nations' moratorium on seed sterilization technology - the moratorium is now under attack by the multinational seed and biotech industry. A meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity, where "suicide seeds" are on the agenda, gets underway in Spain next week. The UN moratorium - which recommends against the field-testing and commercial sale of seed sterilization technology - is under attack. Delta & Pine Land (a multinational seed company) and the US Department of Agriculture recently won new patents on Terminator in... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biopiracy, Biotechnology, Corporate Concentration, Cultural Diversity, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Intellectual Property & Patents, Public / Private Relations, Terminator & Traitor
Date: Jan 12, 2006
Language: English
News Release: New from ETC Group - January 2006
Download PDF (100 KB) - about 18 seconds on a 56k modemNew from ETC Group – January 2006
New Publications
ETC at World Social Forum in CaracasComing Soon: ETC Blog
State of the World 2006 includes a chapter on nanotechnology written by ETC Group. "Shrinking Science: An Introduction to Nanotechnology" provides an overview of tiny tech and its colossal societal impacts. ETC's chapter concludes: "In the coming decades, technologies converging at the nanoscale will revolutionize the design and manufacture of new materials, blur the distinction between living and non-living matter, and change the very definition of what it means to be human. The challenge is to go beyond the tired and familiar approach of technocratic regulations related to 'risk' and to gain an innovative capacity for democratic control and assessment of science and... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biopiracy, Biotechnology, Corporate Concentration, Cultural Diversity, Human Genomics, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Intellectual Property & Patents, Nanotechnology, "New Enclosures", Terminator & Traitor
Date: Dec 21, 2005
Language: English
Whatever Happened to the Enola Bean Patent Challenge?
Download PDF (134 KB) - about 24 seconds on a 56k modemThe Enola bean patent case demonstrates that intellectual property challenges are not a viable means of "correcting" abuses in the patent system. It has been five years since the Colombia-based International Center for Tropical Agriculture filed an official challenge of the now infamous Enola bean patent in Washington, DC. Because of bureaucratic delays and diversions, it's not over yet! ETC Group provides an update on Mexican bean biopiracy.
Categories: Biopiracy, FAO, CGIAR, Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Cultural Diversity, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Intellectual Property & Patents, "New Enclosures", Public / Private Relations
Date: Dec 16, 2005
Language: English
News Release: New Report on Corporate Power - Oligopoly, Inc. 2005
Download PDF (115 KB) - about 21 seconds on a 56k modemETC Group
News Release
16 December 2005
www.etcgroup.org
ETC Group Releases New Report
on Corporate Power, Oligopoly, Inc. 2005
As governments at the 6th WTO Ministerial in Hong Kong bristle with the thorny politics of trade, the report that ETC Group releases today, Oligopoly, Inc. 2005, serves as a reminder that what looks like buying and selling between countries is most often the redistribution of capital among subsidiaries of the same parent multinational corporation.
ETC Group's new report is available at www.etcgroup.org
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biological Warfare, Biotechnology, Corporate Concentration, Cultural Diversity, Human Genomics, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Intellectual Property & Patents, Nanotechnology, "New Enclosures", Public / Private Relations
Date: Dec 16, 2005
Language: English
Oligopoly, Inc. - Concentration in Corporate Power, 2005
Download PDF (677 KB) - about 121 seconds on a 56k modemIn Oligopoly, Inc. 2005 ETC Group finds that corporate concentration -- not only in food and agriculture, but in all sectors related to the products and processes of life -- has increased remarkably since ETC's last review two years ago. The report also reveals that a subterranean struggle is underway at the nano-scale to control the fundamental building blocks of life and nature. Corporate investment in nanobiotechnology (or, synthetic biology) could give ultimate control to a very different set of corporate actors.
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Cultural Diversity, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Biotechnology, Biological Warfare, Human Genomics, Nanotechnology, Other new technologies, Corporate Concentration, Intellectual Property & Patents, "New Enclosures", Public / Private Relations
Date: Nov 15, 2005
Language: English
Report Prepared for the South Centre - The Potential Impacts of Nano-Scale Technologies on Commodity Markets: The Implications for Commodity Dependent Developing Countries
Download PDF (331 KB) - about 59 seconds on a 56k modem"The Potential Impacts of Nano-Scale Technologies on Commodity Markets," prepared for the South Centre, examines the potential impacts of nanotechnology on two sectors - agriculture and mining - in commodity dependent developing countries. Cases studies on rubber, textiles, platinum and copper provide early examples of how economies and workers in the global South could be affected by nanotech's emerging R&D and products.
Categories: FAO, Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Cultural Diversity, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Nanotechnology, Other new technologies, Corporate Concentration, Intellectual Property & Patents, "New Enclosures", Public / Private Relations
Date: Aug 11, 2005
Language: English
Industry Exploits New Study on GM Contamination in Mexico
Download PDF (171 KB) - about 31 seconds on a 56k modemETC Group
News Release
Thursday, 11 August 2005
www.etcgroup.org
The Genetic Shell Game,
or, Now you see it! Now you don't!
Industry exploits new study on transgenic maize in Mexico
Biotech proponents are using a new scientific study - which finds no evidence of DNA contamination from genetically modified (GM) maize in one area of one Mexican state (Oaxaca) - to claim that Mexico's native maize was never threatened, and even if it was at one time, the issue has now miraculously evaporated. One representative of agribusiness in Mexico, eagerly concluded that, "this study paves the way for the commercial planting of GM maize in Mexico."(1)
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biopiracy, Biotechnology, CGIAR, Corporate Concentration, Cultural Diversity, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Intellectual Property & Patents, Public / Private Relations
Date: Jun 01, 2005
Language: English
A Tiny Primer on Nano-scale Technologies ...and The Little BANG Theory
Download PDF (1 MB) - about 207 seconds on a 56k modemETC Group announces the release of "A Tiny Primer on Nano-scale Technologies ...and The Little BANG Theory", a 20 (small) pages pocket guide to nanotechology- a suite of techniques used to manipulate matter at the scale of atoms and molecules.
Categories: BANG/Convergence, Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biological Warfare, Biotechnology, Corporate Concentration, Cultural Diversity, Human Genomics, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Nanotechnology, "New Enclosures"