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2 May 2008 ETC Group ANNOUNCEMENT www.etcgroup.org

ETC Group has posted two new job opportunities.

ETC Group, a non-profit international advocacy CSO, will hire a full-time English-language editor and a full-time programme manager to begin work in or around October 2008. Applications will be accepted until June 6, 2008. Details on the positions and the application process are available on our web site (and see below):

Programme Manager: http://www.etcgroup.org/. Editor: http://www.etcgroup.org/.   For three decades, ETC Group has been an international civil society leader in researching, writing, and advocating on issues of concern to marginalized peoples primarily in the global South. Our work is divided between food, agriculture and biodiversity concerns - and includes... Read more

Civil Society-Labor Coalition Rejects Fundamentally Flawed DuPont-ED Proposed Framework Urges All Parties To Reject The Public Relations Campaign

April 12, 2007

To All Interested Parties:

We, the undersigned, submit this open letter to the international nanotechnology community at large.  We are a coalition of public interest, non-profit and labor organizations that actively work on nanotechnology issues, including workplace safety, consumer health, environmental welfare, and broader societal impacts.   

DuPont Chemical Company (DuPont) and Environmental Defense (ED) jointly have proposed a voluntary “risk assessment” framework for nanotechnology.  These groups intend to circulate their proposed framework both in the U.S. and abroad for consideration and/or adoption by various relevant oversight organizations, including the U.S. Environmental... Read more

ETC Group testifies at US Food & Drug Administration's public meeting on nanotechnology, October 10.  Read ETC Group's statement below.

Presentation of Kathy Jo Wetter on behalf of ETC Group FDA Nanotechnology Public Meeting October 10, 2006   “100 Years after The Pure Food & Drug Act: FDA’s current regulatory framework inadequate to address new nano-scale technologies”  Thank you for the opportunity to present the views of ETC Group. We are an international civil society organization based in Canada. Our work focuses on the social and economic impacts of emerging technologies and their implications, especially for marginalized communities. I’m based in ETC Group’s North Carolina office.  ETC Group has been monitoring the development of nano-scale technologies since 2000. Though we focus on the socio-economic impacts of technologies, in the case of nanotech, we couldn’t ignore the potential health and... Read more

Ban 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.

The calculations,... Read more

ETC Group News ReleaseMonday, January 10, 2005www.etcgroup.orgSyngenta Claims Multi-Genome Monopoly

ETC Group's first Communiqué of 2005 focuses on Syngenta, the global gene giant that ranks first in agrochemicals and third in seeds. Syngenta has a patent pending in 115 countries that, if approved, would give it a multi-genome monopoly over at least 40 plant species.

Calling Syngenta's patent claims "an unprecedented bid for multi-genome monopoly," ETC Group (pronounced "et cetera") has written to the European Patent Office (EPO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) demanding that the patents be rejected. Simultaneously, ETC Group has written to the Director-General of FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) and to the Chair of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) asking them to oppose Syngenta's applications, "on the grounds that they represent a... Read more

EMERGENCY: Please donate to Via Campesina Tsunami relief and reconstruction fund

Via Campesina launches initiative to raise funds for self-help by affected communities

Please support fisherfolk and peasant communities in their own relief and reconstruction from the Tsunami disaster

Via Campesina http://www.viacampesina.org - the global alliance of peasant, family farmer, farm worker, indigenous and landless peoples organizations, and other rural movements - calls for solidarity with the millions of people affected by the tsunami disaster and is launching a global fundraising campaign to channel assistance to affected communities of fisherfolk and peasants, for their own relief and reconstruction efforts, through grassroots organizations. We ask for your donation for direct emergency support to provide basic needs of food, clean drinking water, shelter and health care to affected fisherfolk and peasant families, as... Read more

(June 2003). ATOM TECHNOLOGY: Nanotechnology and Converging Technologies -The Implications of Atomic Modification for Europe and Beyond. June 11th Brussels. - a one day seminar in the European Parliament. ETC Group is organising a European seminar to examine the societal implications of nanotechnology. Sponsored by Yves Pietrasanta MEP This event is being organised in collaboration with The Greens/EFA in the European Parliament , Dag Hammarskjold Foundation, Greenpeace, Genewatch UK, Clean production Action and the Ecologist Magazine. Registration is free and open to policymakers, representatives of civil society groups and the media - however places are limited so please register early. Please note that this event has been moved to the afternoon.

International Advocacy Group Changes Name, President, and Widens Agenda

ETC group (pronounced etcetera) is the new name for the former Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI). The full legal name will be Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration . The official name change took place September 1st as the organization began its 16th year of activity.

Etcetera: We had hundreds of name suggestions, Pat Mooney, Executive Director reports, referring to the name contest launched on the RAFI website earlier this year. A surprisingly large percentage of the suggestions were actually complimentary, Hope Shand, Research Director, recalls. The most common suggestion was not to change our name at all. (The change was advised in order to secure the advocacy group s non-profit status in the United States. The ETC Group is incorporated both in Europe and in Canada, with headquarters in Winnipeg.

Silvia Ribeiro in the Mexico City office adds, We wanted a... Read more

Twenty-three years old, one of the world's most experienced biodiversity/biotech advocacy organizations is broadening its focus and changing its name, the directors of RAFI and of RAFI-USA announced today.

Long history: RAFI and RAFI-USA staff have been working together for over 20 years. Work on agricultural genetic resources that began under the mandate of the International Coalition for Development Action (ICDA), a Brussels-based civil society organization (CSO), in 1977 quickly merged with similar work under the auspices of the Rural Advancement Fund in the southern United States and led to the formation of the Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI) as a Netherlands incorporated CSO in 1985. Although the international work began to be known as RAFI, the work was still under the auspices of the Rural Advancement Fund which fully supported the work through its staffing and fundraising efforts.

In 1990 senior staff of the Rural Advancement Fund joined... Read more