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Hijacking food systems: technofix takeover at the FSS

Submitted by Laura Dunn on

The wrong kind of Food Systems Summit
Communique cover showing artist's interpretation of digital agriculture

Our latest communiqué looks at how the Food Systems Summit (FSS) planned for the fall of 2021 is not about changing food systems, but about spinning a story that props up and expands the industrial food chain at the expense of other food systems. The FSS’s proponents argue that the “food system” is broken, that population growth and climate change mean that we will not be able to feed everyone, and that only new technological developments can save us.

Related Issues: 
Farmers' Rights & Food Sovereignty
International Governance
Corporate Concentration
Related Fora: 
Food and Agriculture: FAO, CGIAR, CFS

New video: #SayNo2SolarGeo

Submitted by Laura Dunn on

Warnings about solar geoengineering
Screenshot of activist Greta Thunberg at home on a zoom webinar

We are excited to share #SayNo2Solar, a new video featuring Greta Thunberg, Michael Mann, Vandana Shiva, Raymond Pierrehumbert, Bill McKibben, Jennie Stephens, Naomi Klein, Tom Goldtooth and Åsa Larsson Blind. Watch the video to listen to their warnings about the dangers of solar geoengineering.
 

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE  VIDEO

Show your support:
1) Share this video

2) Visit www.stopsolargeo.org to learn more

Solar Geoengineering

Submitted by Veronica Villa on

Warnings from scientists, indigeous peoples, youth and climate activists

Once relegated to the fringe of the climate debate, plans to use solar geoengineering to mask rising temperatures are receiving increasing attention from some scientists, governments, and the media. Catchy headlines about silver bullet fixes often downplay the real and profound risks that such technologies pose — including potentially devastating harm to ecosystems, increased droughts and extreme weather events, and the disruption of food production for millions of people around the world.

Leading Climate Scientists, Climate Activists, Indigenous Peoples, and Youth Speak on the Risks of Solar Geoengineering

Submitted by Laura Dunn on

Panels to discuss the growing risks and unequal impact of dangerous technological fixes

Once relegated to the fringe of the climate debate, proposals to use  solar geoengineering to mask the impacts of planetary warming are receiving increasing attention from scientists, the government, and the media. While conversations often center around “silver bullet fixes” they too frequently downplay the real and profound risks that such technologies pose. These impacts would affect all of us but would fall most heavily on Indigenous Peoples and communities in the Global South. 

New online resources to support the participatory assessment of new technologies

Submitted by Laura Dunn on

Illustration of an peasant farmers on a zoom call

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the rise of a global resource-grab in our food and agriculture systems. This encompassing the digitalization of its core ecological and social components as a new means of making vast profits. Approaches that claim precision and efficient resource use are in fact a power grab by a data colossus – the world’s largest corporations, such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Alibaba - from the fields and fishing grounds of farmers and fisherfolk.

US and Canadian Groups Call for Ban on Face Masks Containing Toxic Nanomaterials

Submitted by Laura Dunn on

Face masks designed to protect against COVID-19 should use properly registered ingredients and not expose users to nanomaterials at occupational exposure levels

MINNEAPOLIS—Today, leading environmental and human health advocacy groups from the United States and Canada provided detailed evidence about face masks containing potentially toxic nanoscale materials in a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC).

In memory of Rene Segbenou

Submitted by Laura Dunn on

ETC group would like to extend our sincere condolences to the friends, family and COPAGEN colleagues of Rene Segbenou who passed away on April 11, 2021.

ETC group would like to extend our sincere condolences to the friends, family and COPAGEN colleagues of Rene Segbenou who passed away on April 11, 2021. For over thirty years René Ségbènou has fought on so many fronts: peasant seeds, GMOs, biosecurity, agroecology, UPOV, patenting of living organisms, land grabbing, and the fight against BT cotton in Burkina. Rest in Peace.

Health and Environmental Groups Push European and World Leaders to Protect Citizens from Masks Containing Toxic Particle Nanographene

Submitted by Laura Dunn on

Brussels — Today, leading international health and environmental groups released a letter to European leaders urging immediate action to ban the sale and use of face masks and other personal protective equipment containing nanographene and other nanoparticles.

A Long Food Movement: Transforming Food Systems by 2045

Submitted by Ronnie Hall on

We map out two very different futures for food systems, people and the planet
Envisaging rice farming in 2045 under two very different food systems

First, what do the next 25 years have in store with “agribusiness-as-usual”? The keys of the food system are handed over to data platforms, private equity firms, and e-commerce giants, putting the food security of billions at the mercy of high-risk, AI-controlled farming systems, and accelerating environmental breakdown. But what if the initiative is reclaimed by civil society and social movements?

Related Issues: 
Seeds & Genetic Diversity
Farmers' Rights & Food Sovereignty
Biodiversity & Cultural Diversity
Related Fora: 
Food and Agriculture: FAO, CGIAR, CFS

Jack and the Cloud Giant

Submitted by Laura Dunn on

It's World Storytelling Day, which has the theme of "new beginnings" this year, so we're sharing our new tale of Jack and the Cloud Giant, a twist on an old European fairytale!
The cover of the Jack and the Cloud Giant story showing a young peasant staring up at vines that look digital that are growing out of his farm
Audio: 

In this story, we follow a young peasant called Jack up a data-vine that leads into the Cloud Giant’s techno-castle, where he finds out what happens when he plugs his farm into the glittering apps and the dazzling promises of precision agriculture.

Gana una copia del juego ¡Disrupción! Una batalla por el futuro de la alimentación

Submitted by Laura Dunn on

En las últimas décadas, la forma en que las personas cultivan, comparten y comen alimentos en todo el mundo se ha convertido en la historia de dos sistemas alimentarios en conflicto, a los que llamamos Cadena alimentaria industrial y Red alimentaria campesina. La tensión entre estos dos sistemas es la base de nuestro nuevo juego ¡Disrupción! Una batalla por el futuro de la alimentación. 



Our new game "Disruption!: a battle for the future of food"

Submitted by Laura Dunn on

Box containing a card game with illustrations from the game

Over the last few decades, the way in which people grow, share and eat food around the world has become a tale of two conflicting food systems – which we call the Industrial Food Chain and the Peasant Food Web. The tension between these two systems is the basis of our new game Disruption! A battle for the future of food. 

#7: Geoengineering and Decolonization

Submitted by Dru Oja Jay on

ETC Podcast talks to Tom Goldtooth
What kind of system of knowledge considers it a good idea to try to manipulate the whole climate of an entire planet? For our second of two episodes on geoengineering, ETC Group's Dru Jay spoke to Tom Goldtooth, who is the Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network – and as of recently, an ETC Group board member – about the meaning of colonization, what is called decolonization and on Indigenous perspectives on geoengineering,
 
Listen below, and scroll down for a transcript.

Driven to Extinction

Submitted by Ronnie Hall on

Bill Gates and Gene Drive Extinction Technology

As part of our contribution to a new Global Citizen’s Report ‘Gates to a Global Empire’, we explore the way in which the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) is forcing dangerous gene drive technologies onto the world. BMGF is either the first or second largest funder of gene drive research (alongside the shadowy U.S. military organisation Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) whose exact level of investment is disputed).

The Sugar Daddy of Geoengineering

Submitted by Ronnie Hall on

Bill Gates’ fossil fuel interests and funding for global climate engineering
Aerial photograph of tar sands fields in Canada

ETC Group contributes to a new Global Citizen’s Report ‘Gates to a Global Empire’ which explores the many ways in which the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation wield immense influence across the globe, driving a form of “techno-solutionism” that prioritizes corporate power and profit and ignores over strengthening communities and sustainable solutions. Here we examine Bill Gates’ well-known promotion and funding of untested and potentially devastating geoengineering technologies, which provide cover for his less-known financial investments in fossil fuel technologies.

#5: Algorithmic Colonisation with Abeba Birhane

Submitted by Dru Oja Jay on

Is there such a thing as "ethical AI"?

In this podcast episode, ETC Group speaks to Abeba Birhane, a PhD candidate in cognitive science at University College Dublin in the School of Computer Science. Birhane talks about her work on the algorithmic colonisation of Africa, why we need to normalise critical thinking on new technologies and if there is such a thing as “ethical" AI.

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