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Tel: 1(613) 241-2267
Fax: 1(613) 241-2506
etc@etcgroup.org
FAO
The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). The ETC group relates primarily to the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, and the negotiations for a multilateral system of conservation and exchange of genetic resources for food and agriculture, known as the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Aside from responsibility for the International Treaty, the FAO Commission oversees the FAO-CGIAR Trust Agreement and provides policy oversight for the germplasm collections included in that agreement. ETC group is also involved with follow-through on the 1996 Food Summit and negotiations related to the Right to Food.
Latest Publications
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: Other
Date: May 26, 2008
Language: English
Date: May 26, 2008
Language: English
Call to Action on World Food Emergency
Download PDF (69 KB) - about 12 seconds on a 56k modem26 May 2008
ETC Group
ANNOUNCEMENT
www.etcgroup.org
Call to Action on World Food Emergency
On 22 May, International Biodiversity Day, ETC Group joined with civil society and social movements from around the world to launch a "Call to Action on the World Food Emergency." ETC Group is attending the 9th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Bonn, 19-30 May 2008.
ETC Group invites you to sign on to the international Call to Action by social movements and civil society on the World Food Emergency and the underlying loss of biodiversity. To read the full statement in English, French and Spanish, go here .
No More “Failures-as-Usual"!
... Read More
Categories: FAO
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: Communiqué
Date: Feb 26, 2008
Language: English
Date: Feb 26, 2008
Language: English
Svalbard's Doomsday Vault: The Global Seed Vault Raises Political/Conservation Debate
Download PDF (228 KB) - about 41 seconds on a 56k modemThe swarm of media attention focusing on today's opening of the Global Seed Vault in Norway's high Arctic may overshadow an even bigger news story. Yesterday, 26 February, the Norwegian government pledged to give 0.1% of money spent on commercial seed sales to support Farmers' Rights, and challenged other governments to do the same. The critical message is that even the most secure gene bank storage is not the ultimate solution. Governments must provide support to farmers to improve local conservation and breeding, and help them obtain access to far away seed accessions. Global food security depends upon a coherent in situ (on-farm) and ex situ (gene bank) strategy. The need to support farmers' on-farm conservation and breeding work is urgent.
On the occasion of the opening of the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway, ETC Group releases a new Communiqué, "Svalbard's... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, CGIAR, FAO, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Public / Private Relations
Type: Communiqué
Date: Feb 12, 2008
Language: English
Date: Feb 12, 2008
Language: English
Food’s Failed Estates = Paris’s Hot Cuisine... Food Sovereignty – à la Cartel?
Download PDF (1 MB) - about 197 seconds on a 56k modem
Download (2 MB) - about 383 seconds on a 56k modem*also available in French
Communiqué
January 2008
Issue # 97
Food’s Failed Estates = Paris’s Hot Cuisine
Food Sovereignty – à la Cartel?
Because governments have failed to govern, the leading multilateral institutions involved in food and agriculture are in deep trouble. Unless governments and international secretariats cooperate, these institutions will be irreparably damaged and the power vacuum OECD states have created over recent decades will continue to be filled by multinational agribusiness and the new philanthro-capitalists.Issue: Food Sovereignty, the political philosophy introduced by Via Campesina, has become a hot geopolitical topic. For the first time in decades, food issues are... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, CGIAR, Corporate Concentration, FAO
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: 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
Type: News Item
Date: Feb 01, 2007
Language: English
Date: Feb 01, 2007
Language: English
ETC Group Warns that US Government’s Push for Geoengineering is Unacceptable
Download PDF (139 KB) - about 25 seconds on a 56k modemETC Group
News Release
February 1, 2007
www.etcgroup.org
News Release
February 1, 2007
www.etcgroup.org
Gambling with Gaia
On the Eve of the Release of UN Climate Change Report
ETC Group Warns that US Government’s Push for Geoengineering is Unacceptable
On the day before the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) sounds its loudest alarm yet, ETC Group warns that some OECD states, led by the United States, are betting on a pie-in-the-sky techno-fix to address climate change. “Geoengineering” refers to the intentional, large-scale manipulation of the environment to bring about environmental change. With no hope for Kyoto, little political will to ask industry or... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, FAO, Geoengineering, Nanotechnology, Other New Technologies, Public / Private Relations
Type: News Item
Date: Aug 16, 2006
Language: English
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
Type: News Item
Date: Jun 27, 2006
Language: English
Date: Jun 27, 2006
Language: English
News Release: Call for rejection of World Bank-GEF biosafety projects
Download PDF (424 KB) - about 76 seconds on a 56k modemGroups in Latin America and Africa call for rejection of World Bank-GEF biosafety projects
News Release / June 27th 2006
Released by:
African Centre for Biosafety - http://www.biosafetyafrica.net
ETC Group - http://www.etcgroup.org
GRAIN - http://www.grain.org
Red por una América Latina Libre de Transgénicos - http://www.rallt.org
Two World Bank projects, with funding from the GEF (Global Environmental Facility), propose to introduce genetically modified crops such as maize, potatoes, cassava, rice and cotton into five Latin American and four African countries that are centers of origin or diversity for these and other major food crops. Civil society organizations warn that DNA contamination from genetically modified crops poses an unacceptable risk to stable crops that are the basis of peasant economies in these regions. The multi-million... Read More
Categories: Biopiracy, Biotechnology, CGIAR, Corporate Concentration, FAO, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights
Type: Other
Date: Jun 26, 2006
Language: English
Date: Jun 26, 2006
Language: English
Groups in Africa, Latin America condemn World Bank biosafety projects
Download PDF (90 KB) - about 16 seconds on a 56k modemThe World Bank is set to secure funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for two projects that will undermine public debate and aggressively drive GM crops into the heart of peasant agriculture. The two projects, one in West Africa and the other in Latin America, will hasten the spread of GM crops into farmer seed systems and even into certain centres of origin.
Categories: Biopiracy, FAO, CGIAR, Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biotechnology, Corporate Concentration
Type: Genotype
Date: Dec 21, 2005
Language: English
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
Type: Other
Date: Nov 15, 2005
Language: English
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