ETC Blog

On January 15, 2008, these two headlines shared the same Google News page. What’s wrong with this picture?

“F.D.A. Says Cloned Animals Safe to Eat”

and

“188000 Pounds Of Tainted Beef Recalled”

What do ocean-going yachts, space-traveling bacteria and synthetic life have in common? J. Craig Venter, of course. The self-styled genome tycoon has been busy pushing the boundaries on what may appear at first glance to be unrelated enterprises. Nothing could be further from the truth. A suite of recently uncovered patent applications lodged by Venter and his colleagues reveal not only an attempt to grab ownership over much of synthetic biology (see news release) but also a breathtakingly bold business plan for producing millions of new synthetic organisms per day. At the heart of this are plans for a new, automated process enabling rapid assembly of complete synthetic genomes - plans that, if realised, could render current genetic engineering techniques quaint and obsolete. Venter calls it “homologous in vitro recombination” or “combinatorial genomics.” ETC suggests it might be properly dubbed “shotgun synthesis” and it has the potential to blast apart current biotech practice.

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Esteriliza las semillas y amenaza la agricultura familiar y las costumbres tradicionales
Este jueves fue desestimado por la Comisión de Medio Ambiente de la Cámara de Diputados, por 15 votos a 4, el Proyecto de Ley 268/2007 —redactado por el diputado federal Eduardo Sciarra (DEM – PR)— que busca modificar la Ley de [...]

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In the past, several multinational seed corporations have publicly pledged not to commercialize Terminator seeds - but, not surprisingly, there is intense industry pressure to overturn Brazil’s national law prohibiting suicide seeds. Bill number 268 (2007) in the Brazilian Congress proposes to:
* allow research, registration and patenting of sterile seed technology;
* allow commercialization of Terminator [...]

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Below you will find a series of articles on biofuels, originally written in Spanish by one of ETC Group’s researchers. (Unfortunately, English translations are not always available). Biofuel production is currently a much-debated topic in Latin America. The prominent farmers’ organizations in the region believe that the production of biofuels will lead to further marginalization [...]

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*Silvia Ribeiro
Una de las muestras más claras de las lógicas perversas del capitalismo es el empuje que desde gobiernos y trasnacionales se da a la producción industrial de agrocombustibles, principalmente etanol y biodiesel. La mayoría de los enunciados de esta campaña -mediática, política y subsidiada con recursos públicos- son falsos. Lo que sí es verdad [...]

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Silvia Ribeiro*
Malí, que alojó en febrero 2007 el Foro Mundial de Soberanía Alimentaria “Nyéléni”, es uno de los diez países más pobres del mundo, si se mide en dinero. Sin embargo el país tiene recursos como oro y algodón —del cual es uno de los principales productores del continente—, pero la herencia colonial y las [...]

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Silvia Ribeiro*
Cada vez más queda más claro que los agrocombustibles no solamente no son una panacea ambiental para enfrentar el cambio climático, sino por el contrario, lo van a empeorar. Al mismo tiempo van sentando las bases para nuevas crisis alimentarias y de escasez de agua, junto a la expulsión de campesinos e indígenas de [...]

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ETC Group attended the 12th meeting of the scientific advisory body (SBSTTA) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which met in Paris 2-6 July 2006. Expectations were high that SBSTTA would tackle new and emerging issues on its agenda: agrofuels (a.k.a. biofuels) and climate change. Despite the urgency of these matters, some governments managed [...]

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