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Update on Proposed Terminator Legislation in Brazil

Submitted by Kathy Jo Wetter on

Update on Proposed Terminator Legislation in Brazil
English

Yesterday, ETC Group reported on the scheduled meeting of Brazil's Judicial Commission to rule on the constitutionality of a bill that would allow the planting of Terminator plants (i.e., plants engineered to be sterile in the second generation) in Brazil. While the Judicial Commission did meet, it postponed the discussion on the Terminator bill until next week.

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.

Yet another UN report calls for support to peasant farming and agroecology

Submitted by Veronica Villa on

It's time for action

La Via Campesina, GRAIN and ETC welcome a new UNCTAD report which states that farming in rich and poor nations alike should shift from monoculture towards greater varieties of crops, reduced use of fertilizers and other inputs, greater support for small-scale farmers, and more locally focused production and consumption of food.

Who Will Feed Us? Text and poster

Submitted by Anonymous on

The Industrial Food Chain or the Peasant Food Webs?

The Food Systems We Don’t Know We Don’t Know – Fifty years ago, at the first World Food Congress in June 1963, the UN was told that, “We have the means, we have the capacity, to wipe hunger and poverty from the face of the earth in our lifetime – we need only the will.” These words have been the mantra of every food conference since. Yet governments still face major gaps in their knowledge about our food supply and consumption. This became horribly apparent in 2007 when governments failed to recognize that a global food crisis was at hand. Fifty years after policymakers committed to end hunger they need to sort out why governments don’t have the means, the capacity, or the will to end hunger.

Related Issues: 
strengthening diversity
Seeds & Genetic Diversity
Farmers' Rights & Food Sovereignty
Biodiversity & Cultural Diversity
Genomics & Biotechnology
Climate & Geoengineering
Corporate Concentration
Related Fora: 
Biodiversity: CBD, SBSTTA, IPBES
Food and Agriculture: FAO, CGIAR, CFS
Sustainable Development: Rio+20, CSD

Putting the Cartel before the Horse...and Farm, Seeds, Soil and Peasants etc: Who Will Control the Agricultural Inputs?

Submitted by Joëlle Deschambault on

The State of Corporate Concentration, 2013

In this Communiqué, ETC Group identifies the major corporate players that control industrial farm inputs. Together with our companion poster, Who will feed us? The industrial food chain or the peasant food web?, ETC Group aims to de-construct the myths surrounding the effectiveness of the industrial food system.

Related Issues: 
Seeds & Genetic Diversity
Farmers' Rights & Food Sovereignty
monitoring power
Patents & Biopiracy
Corporate Concentration
Related Fora: 
Biodiversity: CBD, SBSTTA, IPBES
Food and Agriculture: FAO, CGIAR, CFS

New Report: Putting the Cartel before the Horse…and Farm, Seeds, Soil, Peasants

Submitted by Joëlle Deschambault on

Who Will Control Agricultural Inputs?

News Release
September 9th, 2013

ETC Group publishes its 111th Communiqué today. The 40-page report – “Putting the Cartel before the Horse…Who Will Control Agricultural Inputs?” – provides market data on the world’s major corporate players involved in food and agriculture and analysis of key sectors in the corporate food chain.

Let's Stop the Glowing Plant Release Project! - Only 10 days left to contribute to ETC Group's campaign

Submitted by ETC Staff on

ETC Group needs your support to stop US biohackers and private biotech firm, Genome Compiler Corporation, from carrying out the first ever, intentional release of organisms created through synthetic biology.

Only 10 days left to make a contribution to ETC Group's fundraising campaign to stop the release of synbiotech seeds ! Huge thanks to those who have already contributed.

Case Study: Vanilla and Synthetic Biology

Submitted by ETC Staff on

Ingredients, Flavours, Fragrances and Synthetic Biology

Recent developments in synthetic biology could impact the $22 billion global flavour and fragrance market and the livelihoods of producers of natural commodities. These developments impact the sustainable use of biodiversity and fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the genetic resources that produce natural plant products. The worlds largest producers of food ingredients, flavors and fragrances are all now partnering with Synthetic Biology companies to develop biosynthetic versions of key high value natural commodities such as saffron, vanilla, vetiver and patchouli - replacing botanical sources.

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.

Monsanto Protection Act

Submitted by Silvia Ribeiro on

Monsanto Protection Act
English

On March 26th 2013 a legal clause takes effect in the United States which allows Monsanto and other multinational GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms) producers to ignore  judicial decisions to stop GMO sowing, either due to irregularities in its approval, lack of health and environmental impact evaluations, new scientific evidence that alerts health hazards or for any other reason. It is a global unprecedented exception now called “Monsanto Protection Act”.

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.

Response from 'Glowing Plants' project

Submitted by Anonymous on

Email sent by Antony Evans

 

From: Antony Evans 

Date: May 7, 2013 1:34:33 PM EDT

 

Subject: Re: Request to Cancel the Kickstarter Synthetic Biology ‘Glowing Plants’ project.

Dear Jim Thomas and Eric Hoffman,

Thank you for your interest in our project and taking the time to write to us with your concerns. Please allow me to clarify and expand upon a few key points. 

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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