Corporations are developing a variety of new mechanisms to secure monopoly control of biotechnology and other emerging technologies. These new mechanisms - what ETC Group refers to as "New Enclosures" - will supplement or even replace intellectual property as a means of strengthening corporate dominance over new technologies.
Any new technology monitored by ETC Group, aside from biotechnology and nanotechnology, can be viewed by following this link. This category will include, for example, informatics, neurosciences and robotics.
A rapidly changing intellectual property environment and declining research budgets have marginalized the role of public sector agricultural research in both OECD countries and the South. We are witnessing a variety of new partnerships and alliances between the public and private sectors. The ETC Group is concerned about the neglect of the public good and the appropriation of public research for private profit.
Synthetic biology brings together engineering and the life sciences in order to design and construct new biological parts, devices and systems that do not currently exist in the natural world or to tweak the designs of existing biological systems. Synthetic biologists, engaged in a kind of "extreme genetic engineering," hope to construct artificial living systems to perform specific tasks such as produce pharmaceutical compounds or energy.
The genetic modification of plants to produce sterile seeds (dubbed "Terminator" technology by RAFI - now ETC Group -- in 1998) has been widely condemned by civil society, scientific bodies and many governments as an immoral application of biotechnology. If commercialized, Terminator would prevent farmers from re-using seed from their harvest, forcing them to return to the commercial seed market. "Traitor" technology refers to the use of an external chemical inducer to turn "on or off" a plant's genetic traits - the same mechanism used to control seed sterility in Terminator plants.
Farmers' Rights, endorsed by FAO in 1989, recognizes that farmers and rural communities have contributed greatly- and continue to contribute- to the creation, conservation, exchange and enhancement of genetic resources, and that they should be recognized and strengthened in their work. The ETC Group believes that Farmers' Rights must be recognized at the international level, and that its definition should be expanded by the human rights community as part of the Right to Food.
It is virtually impossible to talk about the conservation and sustainable use of genes, species and ecosystems separate from human cultures. The loss of cultural diversity and traditional knowledge - of farm communities, languages, and indigenous cultures - is intricately linked to the loss of biological diversity. Indigenous peoples and farming communities are the creators, custodians and continuing innovators of biological knowledge and resources.
Biological diversity refers to all living organisms, their genetic material and the ecosystems of which they are a part. It is usually described at three levels: genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity. Genetic diversity is the variation of genes between and within species. Genetic diversity within a species permits it to adapt to new pests and diseases, and to changes in environment, climate, and agricultural methods. Biological diversity is the cornerstone of sustainable agriculture and world food security.
The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) is an informal network of 16 international agricultural research centres which manages approximately 600,000 agricultural seed samples. It is the most influential agricultural research body in the South, and thus affects food and agricultural development policies for resource-poor farmers worldwide. In 1994, most of the crop germplasm held in CGIAR gene banks was placed under the auspices of the FAO, to be held in trust for the world community.
The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). The ETC Group relates primarily to the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, and the negotiations for a multilateral system of conservation and exchange of genetic resources for food and agriculture, known as the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Aside from responsibility for the International Treaty, the FAO Commission oversees the FAO-CGIAR Trust Agreement and provides policy oversight for the germplasm collections included in that agreement.
Enviado por Silvia Ribeiro el
Silvia Ribeiro* Pese a la manipulación de información por parte de autoridades e industria, es inocultable que el actual virus de gripe porcina (ahora asépticamente llamado de influenza A/H1N1) tiene su origen en la producción industrial de animales. Las autoridades conocían la amenaza de pandemia, pero no dieron importancia a los avisos de instituciones científicas y organizaciones sociales para no interferir con los intereses económicos de la gran industria alimentaria agrícola y pecuaria y de las trasnacionales farmacéuticas y de biotecnología que lucran con las enfermedades.
Es una diversidad de técnicas que incluyen el uso y manipulación de organismos vivos para obtener productos comerciales. Esas técnicas incluyen cultivo de células, cultivo de tejidos, transferencia de embriones y tecnología del ADN recombinante (ingeniería genética). El trabajo del Grupo ETC al respecto se enfoca en los impactos sociales y económicos de las nuevas biotecnologías. No nos oponemos de manera fundamental a la ingeniería genética, pero tenemos profundas preocupaciones por la forma en que se está imponiendo en el mundo.
Biopiracy refers to the appropriation of the knowledge and genetic resources of farming and indigenous communities by individuals or institutions who seek exclusive monopoly control (patents or intellectual property) over these resources and knowledge. ETC Group believes that intellectual property is predatory on the rights and knowledge of farming communities and indigenous peoples.
A variety of techniques that involve the use and manipulation of living organisms to make commercial products. These techniques include cell culture, tissue culture, embryo transfer, and recombinant DNA technology (genetic engineering). ETC Group focuses on the social and economic impacts of new biotechnologies. ETC Group is not fundamentally opposed to genetic engineering, but we have profound concerns about the way it is being foisted upon the world.
Enviado por Silvia Ribeiro el
Publicado en La Jornada, México, 28 de abril 2009 La nueva epidemia de influenza porcina que día a día amenaza con expandirse a más regiones del mundo, no es un fenómeno aislado. Es parte de la crisis generalizada, y tiene sus raíces en el sistema de cría industrial de animales, dominado por grandes empresas trasnacionales. En México, las grandes empresas avícolas y porcícolas han proliferado ampliamente en las aguas (sucias) del Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte.
Enviado por Jim Thomas el
Written for The Ecologist - May 2009 - p89
Since we don’t have enough land for the renewable technologies we need - let’s go stratospheric instead, with a high-altitude solution…
Enviado por ETC Staff el
Enviado por ETC Staff el
Vicky Schutte of Oakville, Ontario (Canada) took top honors today in ETC Group's international geo-engineering contest for her proposal to combat climate change by re-engineering the earth's orbit. Her idea is to nudge the planet further from the sun (and closer to Mars). In her entry, Schutte helpfully pointed out that expanding the earth's orbit would not only increase the distance between the earth and sun, thereby cooling the planet, but it would also take our birthdays longer to come around – climate salvation and fountain of youth all in one!
Enviado por ETC Staff el
Vicky Schutte de Oakville, Ontario (Canadá) recibió los honores hoy en el concurso internacional de geoingeniería para combatir el cambio climático, por su propuesta de rediseñar la órbita de la Tierra alejando el planeta del sol (y acercándolo a Marte). Schutte señaló atinadamente que expandir la órbita de la Tierra no sólo incrementará la distancia entre la Tierra y el sol, enfriando el planeta, también ocasionará que nuestros cumpleaños tarden más tiempo en celebrarse: ¡la salvación del clima y la fuente de la juventud por el precio de uno! La competencia de ingeniería autodidacta se cerró el 1 de abril 2009, con 46 propuestas de 13 países.
Enviado por ETC Staff el
On February 18, 2009, the Ecuadorian Congress approved a new Law on Food Sovereignty, which, among other important points, declared the country “free of transgenic crops and seeds.” However, in spite of vocal popular opposition, the legislation left the door open to approvals of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in “exceptional” cases. Now, President Rafael Correa has proposed several changes to the legislation – in what is known in Ecuador as a partial-veto – and sent it back to the Congress. The president's changes dangerously weaken the law and open the door to Terminator seeds.
Para saber más sobre el Grupo ETC o para contactarnos.