ETC Group
News Release
November 23, 2004
www.etcgroup.org
ETC Group releases "Down on the Farm: The Impact of Nano-Scale Technologies
on Food and Agriculture"
The ETC Group, an international research and advocacy organisation based in
Ottawa, Canada, today announces the publication of "Down on the Farm," the
first comprehensive look at how nano-scale technologies will affect farmers,
food and agriculture. Nanotechnology refers to the manipulation of matter at
the scale of atoms and molecules, where size is measured in billionths of
metres and quantum physics determines how a substance behaves. According to
Hope Shand, ETC Group's Research Director, "Over the next two decades,
technologies converging at the nano-scale will have a greater impact on
farmers and food than farm mechanisation or the Green Revolution."
"Down on the Farm" dishes out some big surprises: A handful of food and
nutrition products containing invisible and un-labeled nano-scale additives
are already on supermarket shelves. In addition, a number of pesticides
containing nano-scale materials have been released in the environment and
are commercially available. Nano-scale materials exhibit different
properties than the same materials at larger scales - and scientists are now
finding out that nano-scale materials are generally more reactive and mobile
if they enter the body. Only a handful of toxicological studies exist.
Because of these concerns, the use of new, nano-scale materials must be
guided by the Precautionary Principle. "By allowing nanotech food and
agricultural products to come to market in the absence of public debate and
regulatory oversight, governments and industry may be igniting a new and
more intense debate - this time over 'atomically-modified' foods," adds Jim
Thomas, ETC Group Programme Manager based in Oxford, UK.
Global Outreach: ETC Group is taking its new nanotech report to farm
organisations, social movements and governments worldwide. In Bangladesh,
ETC Group Executive Director, Pat Mooney, is attending the Asia-Pacific
Conference on Food Sovereignty where representatives from 30 countries will
hear about the impacts of nano-scale technologies on food and farming; in
Brazil, Silvia Ribeiro of ETC Group is meeting with Movimento dos
Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (Landless Workers Movement), one of the
largest social movements in Latin America. Last week ETC's Jim Thomas
presented Down on the Farm to government representatives attending the FAO
Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and Hope Shand
addressed the annual convention of the National Farmers Union in
Saskatchewan, Canada.
Most of the world's largest food and beverage corporations - including
Unilever, NestlŽ and Kraft - are conducting research and development (R) on
nano-scale technologies to engineer, process, package and deliver food and
nutrients. Major agribusiness firms, such as Syngenta, BASF, Bayer and
Monsanto are reformulating their pesticides at the nano-scale to make them
more biologically active and to win new monopoly patents. Down on the Farm
examines a wide range of current R, ranging from atomically-modified seeds,
nano-sensors for precision agriculture, plants engineered to produce metal
nanoparticles, nano-vaccines for farmed fish, nano-barcodes for tracking and
controlling food products, and more.
Last month the US Patent and Trademark Office established a new
classification for nanotechnology patents, notes ETC Group. "It's ironic
that a company can win a monopoly patent because their nano-scale product is
recognised as novel, but food and safety regulators have yet to acknowledge
the novelty of the nano-scale," notes ETC Researcher, Kathy Jo Wetter in
North Carolina.
Commodity Roulette: Industry expects nano-scale technologies to create
dramatic shifts in supply and value chains, turning commodity markets
upside-down. ETC Group finds that small farmers and agricultural workers in
the developing world will be among the first and most adversely affected by
nanotech's new designer materials. Poor farmers are seldom in a position to
respond quickly to abrupt economic changes. Particularly at risk are farm
communities and countries in the global South that depend on primary export
commodities such as rubber and cotton - products that could be displaced by
new nanotech materials. "Even if there might be environmental benefits to
replacing some natural commodities with materials designed at the
nano-scale, that won't prevent market disruptions from causing real harm in
the global South," explains Jim Thomas.
ETC Group recommends that society - including farmers, civil society
organisations and social movements - engage in a wide debate about
nano-scale technologies and their multiple economic, health and
environmental implications. "Any efforts by governments or industry to
confine the discussion to meetings of experts or to focus the debate solely
on health and safety aspects will be a mistake. The broader social and
ethical issues must be addressed," warns ETC's Silvia Ribeiro, Programme
Manager in Mexico City.
In 2002, ETC called for a moratorium on the commercialisation of new
nano-scale materials until laboratory protocols and regulatory regimes are
in place that take into account the special characteristics of these
materials, and until they are shown to be safe. Accordingly, in Down of the
Farm, ETC Group recommends that all food, feed and beverage products
incorporating manufactured nanoparticles be removed from the shelves and new
ones be prohibited from commercialisation until companies and regulators
have shown that they have taken nano-scale property changes into account.
Similarly, nano-scale formulations of agricultural products such as
pesticides and fertilisers should be prohibited from environmental release
until a regulatory regime specifically designed to examine these nano-scale
products finds them safe.
Goo Plate Special: ETC's report also puts the spotlight on the rapidly
emerging field of synthetic biology - the construction of new living systems
in the laboratory that can be programmed to do things that no natural
organism can. "Living machines" frequently involve the integration of living
and non-living parts at the nano-scale - also known as nanobiotechnology.
"What if new life forms, especially those that are designed to function
autonomously in the environment, prove difficult to control or contain?"
asks ETC Group. Given the extreme risks (that even mainstream scientists are
beginning to acknowledge), Down on the Farm calls for an immediate
moratorium on laboratory experimentation and environmental release of
synthetic biology materials until society can engage in a thorough analysis
of the health, environmental and socio-economic implications.
"Down on the Farm: The Impact of Nano-Scale Technologies on Food and
Agriculture" is available on the ETC Group web site: http://www.etcgroup.org
For more information:
Hope Shand: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Kathy Jo Wetter: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
ETC Group - North Carolina, USA phone: 1-919-960-5223
Jim Thomas [EMAIL PROTECTED]
ETC Group - Oxford, UK phone: +44 1865 201719 mobile: +44 7752 106806
Silvia Ribeiro: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
ETC Group - Mexico City phone: +52 5555 6326 64 mobile: +52 5526 5333 30
Pat Mooney: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
ETC Group - Ottawa, Canada phone: 1-613-241-2267
Dear Friends,
Please see the following from ETC group. Do you have any idea where we all are
heading to? Wih this sort of developments, Nanotech may step into energy
market. Who knows. I understand already they have been doing some research. Any
idea about that?
Upali.
Upali Magedaragamage - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
ETC Group headquarters - NEW ADDRESS:
1 Nicholas Street, Suite 200B
Ottawa, Ontario K1N 7B7 Canada
tel: 1-613-241-2267; fax: 1-613-241-2506
The Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration, formerly RAFI, is
an international civil society organization headquartered in Canada. The ETC
Group is dedicated to the advancement of cultural and ecological diversity
and human rights. www.etcgroup.org. The ETC Group is also a member of the
Community Biodiversity Development and Conservation Programme (CBDC). The
CBDC is a collaborative experimental initiative involving civil society
organizations and public research institutions in 14 countries. The CBDC is
dedicated to the exploration of community-directed programmes to strengthen
the conservation and enhancement of agricultural biodiversity. The CBDC
website is www.cbdcprogram.org
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