Design Competition: Brand that Synthetic Biology Vanilla!

As early as next year, a new ingredient straight out of a petri dish could enter our favorite foods – from ice cream to apple pie. It’s a ‘vanilla-like’ flavor produced via a new extreme genetic engineering technology called ‘synthetic biology.’ No government anywhere in the world has taken steps to assess or regulate this technology, yet its imminent arrival on the commercial market may threaten the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of tropical vanilla farmers and their families in countries such as Madagascar and Mexico.

This new vanilla flavor exists nowhere in nature, but the companies behind it are confident it deserves a 'natural flavor' label. ETC Group and Friends of the Earth believe that would be misleading and that consumers need to know the real story behind this novel, genetically engineered ingredient.

Good News for World Food Day: Suicide Seeds Are Dead…for the moment

Submitted by Joëlle Deschambault on

In a great bit of news for World Food Day, a key Brazilian congressional committee today withdrew the consideration of legislation that would have allowed the sale and use of Terminator Technology, also known as suicide seeds. The Constitutional Commission of the Brazilian House of Representatives was slated to consider Bill PL 268/2007 this morning, but decided instead to withdraw it from the agenda – taking into account the social concerns raised by the national and international mobilization in opposition to the bill. Further, the President of the Commission pledged that as long as he is at the helm, he will not allow the bill back on the agenda.

Brazil Set to Unleash Terminator Threat

Submitted by Veronica Villa on

Fast-tracked Legislation to Allow Sterile Seeds Would Harm Farmers, Food Security

Today Brazil’s Judicial Commission is slated to rule on the constitutionality of a proposed bill that will allow genetically engineered sterility in seeds, known as Terminator Technology. If the bill gains the approval of the Commission, it could quickly come to a vote in Congress. Brazil’s national law to ban Terminator has been under threat since it was enacted 8 years ago, but this most recent congressional action has caused the most serious alarm since it could swiftly overturn the ban.

News Release: Concern as IPCC Bangs the Drum for Geoengineering

Submitted by ETC Group on

IPCC Shoots a Silver Bullet (Point) for Climate Change, Includes Geoengineering in its Latest Report

As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published the first installment of its latest climate change Assessment Report, AR5, the final paragraph of its Summary for Policymakers – a bullet point referring to proposals for deliberately altering climate systems – has caused consternation by addressing the controversial topic of geoengineering. (1)While the paragraph does not endorse geoengineering, as had been proposed by Russia, its very presence is ringing alarm bells.

Why Synthetic Artemisinin Is Still a Bad Idea - A Response to Rob Carlson

Submitted by Jim Thomas on

Why Synthetic Artemisinin Is Still a Bad Idea - A Response to Rob Carlson
English

Background: At a recent Synthetic Biology Conference in Cambridge UK, Synthetic Biologist Jay Keasling announced that the consortium he was working with now intend to replace the entire global supply of artemisinin (an anti-malarial compound) with their new synthetic-biology derived version.

Synthetic Biology: The Bioeconomy of Landlessness and Hunger

Submitted by ETC Group on

Synthetic biology goes beyond transferring genes between species to constructing entirely new, self-replicating microorganisms that have the potential to convert any biomass or carbon feedstock into any product that can be produced by fossil carbons – plus many more.From the perspective of synthetic biology, the resource base for the development of marketable “renewable” materials (that is not from petroleum) is not the world’s commercialized 23.8 % of annual terrestrial biomass, but also the other 76.2 % of annual terrestrial biomass that has, thus far, remained outside the market economy. Synthetic biology has already attracted the attention of the United Nations and governments. The technology was on the agenda of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity that met in Hyderabad, India in mid-October 2012, with governments agreeing to continue monitoring the technology and report back to future meetings of the CBD.

News Release: Last Chance for Kickstarter to stop release of risky seeds

Submitted by david on

Stop the spread of synthetic biology

There is less than a day to go before the popular crowdfunding site Kickstarter.com hands hundreds of thousands of dollars to a controversial project for the widespread and unregulated distribution of over half a million extreme-bioengineered seeds. Kickstarter, which stands to make over $22,000 from the project (1), has steadfastly refused to comment on its listing of a project to make and distribute ‘glowing genetically modified plants’ using Synthetic Biology.

Kickstopper letter to 'Glowing Plants' project

Submitted by Jim Thomas on

ETC Group and Friends of The Earth request a halt to Synthetic Biology project.

 

2 May 2013 Dear Antony Evans,

Request to Cancel the Kickstarter Synthetic Biology ʻGlowing Plantsʼ project.

We are writing to express our concern, in the strongest possible terms, about the project you have listed on Kickstarter, which, as currently advertised, will likely result in widespread, random and uncontrolled release of bioengineered seeds and plants produced with synthetic biology techniques. We respectfully request that this project, which poses real world risks to the environment, be abandoned as currently described.

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