Recent Content Related to Militarism & Dissent

ETC Group releases "Down on the Farm: The Impact of Nano-Scale Technologies on Food and Agriculture"

Submitted by ETC Staff on

The ETC Group, announces the publication of Down on the Farm, the first comprehensive look at how nano-scale technologies will affect farmers, food and agriculture. Nanotechnology refers to the manipulation of matter at the scale of atoms and molecules, where size is measured in billionths of metres and quantum physics determines how a substance behaves. According to Hope Shand, ETC Group’s Research Director, "Over the next two decades, technologies converging at the nano-scale will have a greater impact on farmers and food than farm mechanisation or the Green Revolution."

Rocking the Boat: J. Craig Venter's Microbial Collecting Expedition Under Fire in Latin America

Submitted by ETC Staff on

Civil society organizations (CSOs) and peoples’ movements convening at the first Americas Social Forum in Quito, Ecuador, July 25-30 2004, are protesting J. Craig Venter’s US-government funded ocean expedition to collect and sequence microbial diversity from around the globe. Exotic microbes are the raw materials for creating new energy sources and even new life forms.

The Precautionary Prince II

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Prince Charles’ cautionary note brings “control and ownership” of nanotechnology, social issues and impacts on the South to the fore

“Prince Charles’ thoughtful article in the Independent on Sunday (UK) is an impressive service to society and science in the unfolding public debate on nanotechnology,” according to Jim Thomas of the ETC Group’s Oxford office. “Not only does the Prince set aside the fictional notion of ‘grey goo,’ but he also sensibly reminds us that there are important unanswered questions relating to the control and ownership of these technologies,” said Thomas.

Nanotech News in Living Colour: An Update on White Papers, Red Flags, Green Goo (and Red Herrings)

Submitted by ETC Staff on

In sharp contrast to the political climate one year ago, the potential health and environmental risks of some nano-scale technologies are now being openly discussed in Europe and North America. In recent months, governments on both sides of the Atlantic have reluctantly conceded that current safety and health regulations may not be adequate to address the special exigencies of nano-scale materials.

The Little Big Down: A Small Introduction to Nano-scale Technologies

Submitted by ETC Staff on

This brochure, The Little Big Down, is based on a larger ETC Group study, The Big Down: From Genomes to Atoms.

Related Issues: 
Corporate Concentration
Patents & Biopiracy
Terminator & New Enclosures
International Governance
Militarism & Dissent
Nanotechnology
Genomics & Biotechnology
Other technologies
Farmers' Rights & Food Sovereignty
Biodiversity & Cultural Diversity

Playing God in the Galapagos

Submitted by ETC Staff on

J. Craig Venter, Master and Commander of Genomics, on Global Expedition to Collect Microbial Diversity for Engineering Life

The ETC Group releases a new Communiqué today (11.02.2004) that focuses on J. Craig Venter’s controversial ocean expedition that is circumnavigating the globe to collect microbial diversity from gene-rich seas and shores every 200 miles.

J. Craig Venter, the genomics mogul and scientific wizard who recently created a unique living organism from scratch in a matter of days, is searching for pay-dirt in biodiversity-rich marine environments around the world. Venter’s yacht, the Sorcerer II, is now steaming toward the South Pacific after collecting land and marine microbes from Maine to Mexico, Panama, Chile, and — most recently — on Ecuador’s famous Galapagos Islands.

Playing God in the Galapagos

Submitted by ETC Staff on

J. Craig Venter, the genomics mogul and scientific wizard who recently created a unique living organism from scratch in a matter of days, is searching for pay-dirt in the biodiversity-rich Galapagos Islands. From his 95-ft. yacht, Sorcerer II, Venter is hop-scotching around the globe collecting microbial diversity from gene-rich seas and shores every 200 miles.(1) Venter's ship has already sampled in the Sargasso Sea (North Atlantic), Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador (Galapagos), Chile and is now en route to French Polynesia (Tahiti, Bora Bora, etc.).

The Little BANG Theory

Submitted by ETC Staff on

A mix of Bits, Atoms, Neurons and Genes (B.A.N.G.) make the world come ‘round – for the USA!

In the USA, senior science policy makers and industry players are devising a new-style 'Manhattan' or 'Apollo' project to merge strategic technologies at the nano-scale (one billionth of a meter). Their aim is to combine biotechnology, information technology and cognitive (neural) science with atomtechnology at the nano scale (see The Big Down). The operative unit in information science is the Bit; nanotechnology manipulates Atoms; cognitive science deals with Neurons and biotech exploits the Gene. Together they make B.A.N.G. Merging these technologies into one, proponents say, will drive a huge industrial revolution and a societal "renaissance" that will guarantee American dominance - military and economic - through the 21st century.

Green Goo: Nanotechnology Comes Alive!

Submitted by ETC Staff on

The first and greatest impact of nano-scale technologies may come with the merger of nanotech and biotech - a newly recognized discipline called nanobiotechnology. While Gray Goo has grabbed the headlines, self-replicating nanobots are not yet possible. The more likely future scenario is that the merger of living and non-living matter will result in hybrid organisms and products that end up behaving in unpredictable and uncontrollable ways - get ready for "Green Goo!"

The Big Down

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Atomtech - Technologies Converging at the Nano-scale

The Big Down: Atomtech - Technologies Converging at the Nano-scale, is the first comprehensive and critical analysis of nanotechnology for civil society and policymakers. The 80-page report seeks to widen civil society's and policymakers' focus beyond biotech and genetically engineered crops, and to catalyze widespread public debate on the societal impacts of nanotechnology.

Related Issues: 
Corporate Concentration
Patents & Biopiracy
Militarism & Dissent
tracking technology
Nanotechnology
Genomics & Biotechnology
Other technologies
Farmers' Rights & Food Sovereignty
Related Fora: 
Intellectual property: WIPO, EPO, USPTO

The Big Down

Submitted by ETC Group on

Technologies Converging at the Nano-scale

The ETC Group (formerly known as RAFI) announces the publication of The Big Down: Atomtech — Technologies Converging at the Nano-scale, the first comprehensive and critical analysis of nanotechnology for civil society and policymakers. The 80-page report seeks to widen civil society’s and policymakers’ focus beyond biotech and genetically engineered crops, and to catalyze widespread public debate on the societal impacts of nanotechnology.

The Stockholm Syndrome - Part II. Food Sovereignty II

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Food Sovereignty and the World Food Summit - 27 Modest Proposals

The theme for the NGO/CSO Forum during the World Food Conference in Rome in early June 2002 is Food Sovereignty – the rights of small producers to provide and of poor consumers to eat. For the fifth time since it was founded in 1945, FAO is trying to get governments to wake up to their national and global obligation to end food insecurity. Past conferences have bred platitudes without progress.

Related Issues: 
Patents & Biopiracy
Terminator & New Enclosures
International Governance
Militarism & Dissent
Genomics & Biotechnology
Farmers' Rights & Food Sovereignty
Biodiversity & Cultural Diversity

ETC Group responds to Purdue University's recent efforts ...

Submitted by ETC Staff on

...to promote genetic seed sterilization - Terminator technology - as an environmental protection technology

It is revisionist history, and a cynical strategy, to suggest that Terminator was developed as a biosafety tool.

ETC Group is alarmed and insulted by the campaign to promote Terminator as a biosafety mechanism. It is unacceptable and dangerous to suggest that agriculture is dependent on genetic seed sterilization as a method for minimizing genetic pollution from genetically modified plants.

Nanotech Takes a Giant Step Down!

Submitted by ETC Staff on

MIT says an army of NanoWalkers (microbots) will be performing sub-atomic operations within three months. The development signals a new era in technology as industry prepares to move "down" from genomes to atoms.

Thumbelina with an attitude: Hundreds of three-legged robots the size of a thumb, complete with onboard computers, powerful microscopes, and biosensors will be ready to manufacture nano-scale materials by mid-2002, according to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Bioinstrumentation Laboratory. A 'nano' is a measurement of one-billionth of a meter. Only 32 millimeters in diameter, the microbots are designed to manipulate atoms. Responding to infrared signals allowing each microbot to act independently or collectively on myriad tasks, the little machines (dubbed "NanoWalkers") are capable of executing 48 million instructions and making 4,000 nano-maneuvers per second. MIT expects to have at least 300 microbots hard at work in an enclosed card-table sized chromium chamber by June. The chromium surface provides an energy source for the robots which will receive their marching orders from a master computer in the box's ceiling.

Terminate Terminator in 2002! New Brochure Available from ETC group

Submitted by ETC Staff on

Terminator technology--the genetic modification of plants to produce sterile seeds--is a global threat to food security, to poor farmers, and to biodiversity. ETC group is campaigning with civil society organizations worldwide for a ban on Terminator, which has been condemned by civil society, scientific bodies and many governments as an immoral application of agricultural biotechnology.

Related Issues: 
Corporate Concentration
Patents & Biopiracy
Terminator & New Enclosures
International Governance
Militarism & Dissent
Genomics & Biotechnology
Farmers' Rights & Food Sovereignty
Biodiversity & Cultural Diversity

HyPEing the Human Genome

Submitted by ETC Staff on

The Dissent Disease

A new report by ETC Group argues that the pharmaceutical industry's major interest in "The Book of Life" and parallel advances in neurosciences lies in the development of new drugs and therapies that target "well people" rather than the ill. The study also shows that company strategies focusing on parents could eliminate the "different" in the human species in favour of a monocultural "norm." In addition, industry and government are exploring the potential to use the new genomics to monitor and control dissent.

The New Genomics Agenda

Submitted by ETC Staff on

A Political Epilogue to the Book of Life: Update on Pharmaceutical Multinationals

Issue: For five years now, public concern about genetic engineering has been riveted on GM crops and foods. But, advances in mapping the human genome have spawned new pharmaceutical industry opportunities. While the prospects for human cloning and stem cell therapies grab the headlines and divert our attention, the companies are pursuing more strategic agendas. Although the majority oppose reproductive cloning, public and policy opinion is 'soft.' Industry's latest and most lucrative market - Human Performance Enhancement drugs - 'HyPEs' - are not even on the policy agenda.

Terminator Takeover?

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Will financial troubles put Delta & Pine Land on the auction block?

Delta & Pine Land, the maverick seed company that vows to commercialize the notorious Terminator technology, is in trouble. Delta & Pine Land announced (2001) that its president is quitting, the company will eliminate 7 percent of its work force and they are shutting down a facility in Arizona.

USDA Says Yes to Terminator

Submitted by ETC Staff on

It's official. The US Department of Agriculture announced this week that it has concluded negotiations to license the notorious Terminator technology to its seed industry partner, Delta & Pine Land (D&PL). As a result of joint research, the USDA and D&PL are co-owners of three patents on the controversial technology that genetically modifies plants to produce sterile seeds, preventing farmers from re-using harvested seed. A licensing agreement establishes the terms and conditions under which a party can use a patented technology. Although many of the Gene Giants hold patents on Terminator technology, D&PL is the only company that has publicly declared its intention to commercialize Terminator seeds.

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