Publications

Patenting the "Climate Genes" ...and Capturing the Climate Agenda

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Communiqué
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

News Release: Gene Giants Grab "Climate Genes"

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Categories: Biotechnology, CGIAR, Corporate Concentration, FAO, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Intellectual Property & Patents, Public / Private Relations

ETC Group Seeks Applicants for Programme Manager and Editor Positions

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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/upload/publication/686/01/etc_pm_job.pdf

Editor: http://www.etcgroup.org/upload/publication/686/02/ETC_Ed_job.pdf
 
...   Read More

Hollow Victory: Enola Bean Patent Smashed At Last (Maybe)

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ETC Group
News Release
29 April 2008
www.etcgroup.org

Hollow Victory: Enola Bean Patent Smashed At Last (Maybe)

The infamous Enola bean patent, first denounced by ETC Group eight years ago as a textbook case of biopiracy, was struck down yesterday (April 29, 2008) by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office in Washington, D.C. One of the most controversial plant patents in history, the effort to defeat it was unprecedented because it involved the United Nations and international plant breeding institutes.

“Many people are calling the PTO’s decision to reject the Enola bean patent a victory, but we’re inclined to call it a travesty,” said Hope Shand of ETC Group. “In essence, the U.S. patent system allowed the owner of a flagrantly unjust patent to legally monopolize markets and destroy competition – for close to half...   Read More










Categories: Biopiracy

The Coalition Against Biopiracy today calls for nominations for the Fifth Captain Hook Awards

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News 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

Direct-to-Consumer DNA Testing and the Myth of Personalized Medicine: Spit Kits, SNP Chips and Human Genomics

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ETC 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

Svalbard's Doomsday Vault: The Global Seed Vault Raises Political/Conservation Debate

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The 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

Food’s Failed Estates = Paris’s Hot Cuisine... Food Sovereignty – à la Cartel?

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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 rising high on the international agenda – pushed there by alarm over climate chaos; booming population growth; the fast-growing...   Read More








Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, CGIAR, Corporate Concentration, FAO

Venter Institute Builds Longest Sequence of Synthetic DNA (that Doesn’t Work)

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ETC 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

Organic Pioneer Says No to Nano

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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

Peak Soil + Peak Oil = Peak Spoils

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Communiqué

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

Extreme Monopoly: Venter's Team Makes Vast Patent Grab on Synthetic Genomes

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ETC Group
News Release
8 December 2007
www.etcgroup.org

Extreme Monopoly:

Venter’s Team Makes Vast Patent Grab on Synthetic Genomes

Six 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

London Convention Puts Brakes on Ocean Geoengineering

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Categories: Other New Technologies

Backgrounder: Ocean Nourishment Corporation plans imminent urea dumping experiment in Southeast Asian seas

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Categories: Geoengineering, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Other New Technologies