ETC Podcast #2: The Next Agribusiness Takeover

Pat Mooney talks global corporate power moves

In episode #2 of the ETC Podcast (recorded in January), founder Pat Mooney discusses ETC's communiqué, The Next Agribusiness Takeover: Multilateral Food Agencies and the moves powerful corporate actors are making to take over global food policy institutions.

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The Emergency is the Disease, not the Symptom: Video

Gopal Dayaneni on the pandemic, geoengineering and the meaning of urgency

Interviewed on March 27, 2020, ETC Group's Gopal Dayaneni describes the use of "climate emergency" framing to justify geoengineering, and how our political imagination will determine the outcome. Gopal's commentary is in response to a question about the climate emergency framing, and how it is being used to justify previously unthinkable and unproven geoengineering methods.

The Next Agribusiness Takeover: Multilateral Food Agencies

Stakeholders vs. Steak-eaters

Between now and late 2021, the World Economic Forum, agri-food conglomerates, IT companies and philanthropists (led by the Gates Foundation) have teamed up to spearhead three separate initiatives which could converge and utterly transform the multilateral agricultural system.

At stake is influence over four institutions with a combined annual budget of $11 billion and 5100 scientific/professional staff.

Three Big Battles for Global Food Policy Looming

World Food Systems Summit is part of a three-pronged corporate food policy power grab
February 12, 2020—A corporate alliance (consisting of Big Ag, the World Economic Forum, philanthro-capitalists and others) have spearheaded three separate initiatives (the Food Systems Summit, restructuring research institutions, acceleration of data collection) which threaten to converge and utterly transform the multilateral food and agriculture system. 
 

Gene Drive organisms: Destructive and Uncontrollable

Brief video about gene drives, by ETC Group and Swissaid

 Gene drive organisms have been greeted with a breathless euphoria by some geneticists, policy-makers and philanthropists. By manipulating the sexual reproductive system of organisms, the promoters of the technology claim they should be able to exterminate some species that are harmful to humans. However, once we look behind the headline-grabbing claims, it becomes clear that the use of this technology could put food systems and humanity at serious risk of irreversible harm.

See the video here:

ETC Podcast Episode #1: Gene drives in Africa

ETC will be occasionally chatting with collaborators, activists and experts about emerging technologies. Check for the ETC podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or other podcast services. A full list of episodes can be found at etcgroup.libsyn.com In Episode #1 ETC's Tom Wakeford speaks with Ugandan lawyer and advocate Barbara Ntambirweki about gene drives, a powerful new genetic technology that can change species in the wild and make species go extinct.

Briefing on Proposed ISO Radiative Forcing Standard

Leaked documents reveal ISO's geoengineering plans

In early August, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that the ISO, a corporate-driven standards organization, was moving forward with a new standard that could undermine existing climate standards, which included mentions of geoengineering.

At the time, we asked who was behind the push the attempt to create a standard for measuring "radiative forcing," and to create a market for 

Video: From the Lab to the Field to the Forest

Synthetic biology on the loose

The expert group that will be filing a report with recommendations to the UN Convention on Biodiversity met in early June, and examined a variety of emerging uses of synthetic biology. Jim Thomas was there representing ETC.

Increasingly, syn bio is moving out of the lab, and companies are conducting experiments and even genetic engineering in the wild – for example, by using viruses or gene drives to change genetic structures in nature.

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