Submitted by Ronnie Hall on
Submitted by Ronnie Hall on
We, participants of the First Pan-African Convening on the Future of Biodigital Technologies in Food and Agriculture, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 2–4 October 2025, and co-organized by the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) and African Technology Assessment Platform (AfriTAP) and the ETC Group, gathered in a landmark event to confront the challenges and possibilities posed by emerging digital technologies.
Submitted by Ronnie Hall on
Now available in 6 languages
Submitted by Ronnie Hall on
COP15: An interview with Christine von Weizsäcker
by Zahra Moloo
(Click on the link below to listen to the interview.)
As preliminary meetings of the Open-Ended Working Group wrap up and official COP meetings begin, ECOROPA’s Christine von Weizsäcker talks to ETC Group about evaluating new genetic technologies and the rights of indigenous people in the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).
Submitted by Laura Dunn on
TIME: 18.15, Wednesday, December 7 2022
LOCATION: Business and Industry Organizations Meeting Room
Light refreshments will be served
Since its earliest days, the CBD has prioritised the precautionary approach to assess and monitor the impacts of new technologies. In an era of rapid technologically-driven change and ever greater technological power, policymakers need the means to see and prepare for disruptive trends. Come and hear:
Submitted by Ronnie Hall on
At stake at COP15!
Submitted by Ronnie Hall on
You can listen to this 5-minute mini-podcast (in English) here.
Submitted by Laura Dunn on
These recorded webinars (held on 29 & 30 June 2022) provide an introduction to the digitalisation of food systems from seed to stomach (also known as the 4.0 revolution in food and agriculture). You can view them on YouTube and we are compiling additional materials: please find all relevant links below.
Session 1: Power and technology: the digital food chain | By ETC Group
Submitted by Laura Dunn on
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.
Submitted by Dru Oja Jay on
Submitted by Dru Oja Jay on
Submitted by Dru Oja Jay on
Submitted by Dru Oja Jay on
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.
Submitted by Dru Oja Jay on
The following is an excerpt from ETC Group's May 2019 newsletter. To receive regular updates, sign up (see right sidebar)!
As converging global crises – biodiversity, climate, plastic – intensify, governments and corporations are scrambling to create new institutions and investors are lining up to finance a new round of buzzword-driven techno-fixes. Talk of “rapid technological change”, “exponential technologies”, “frontier technologies” and “the fourth industrial revolution” can be heard in hallways of a variety of governments, institutions and UN bodies.
Submitted by Veronica Villa on
Collective press release by ETC Group, the Indigenous Environmental Network, Friends of the Earth International, La Via Campesina, Climate Justice Alliance and BiofuelWatch.
In a widely-supported Manifesto released today, 23 international organizations, six “Alternative Nobel Prize” recipients, and 87 national organizations from five continents called for a halt to testing and political consideration of climate geoengineering.
Submitted by Dru Oja Jay on
“The future has arrived — it’s just not evenly distributed yet.” —William Gibson, 1992
As the year careens to a close, summing up the trends, portends and hairpin bends of 2017 feels like a Pandora’s unboxing of mashed up dystopias. Call it technological convergence or the fourth industrial revolution, but the familiar cyberpunk themes of robotics, Artificial Intelligence and bioengineered economies are now becoming cyber-industrial fact.
Submitted by Dru Oja Jay on
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Over 1,200 emails released under open records requests reveal that the U.S. military is now the top funder and influencer behind a controversial genetic extinction technology known as “gene drives” – pumping $100 million into the field.
Submitted by Trudi Zundel on
In May 2017, ETC Group presented their proposal for a G.O.A.T.S approach to Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) governance at the annual UN STI Forum.
Submitted by Trudi Zundel on
What’s the role of synthetic biology in our food system and how does it relate to “climate-smart” agriculture? What are the costs and risks?
Available to watch at http://www.synbiowatch.org/2016/07/outsmarting-nature-webinar/
Submitted by ETC Group on
Addis Summit creates a Technology Facilitation Mechanism including a multi-stakeholder forum to discuss technology issues, including risks and opportunities of emerging technologies for the UN’s 2015–30 Sustainable Development Goals.
Find out more about ETC Group, or contact us.