Category: Issues
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From rogue scientists to DIY biohackers: real threats to ecosystems are not being taken seriously
This spring could see new synbio techniques literally hitting the streets, with DIY biohacking kits going on sale. These promise you the ability to make yeast turn red. More significantly, other biohackers are planning to post synbio glow-in-the-dark plants to enthusiasts throughout the US. Whilst these biohacking gimmicks may sound perfectly innocuous, they are potentially […]
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Biofuel or Biofraud? The Vast Taxpayer Cost of Failed Cellulosic and Algal Biofuels
by Almuth Ernsting (Independent Science News) Biofuels consumed today are usually ethanol made from the sugar in sugar cane (or sugar beet) or they may be made from starch in grains. In the US this is mostly corn starch. Alternatively, biodiesel may be made from plant oils such as soybean or canola oil. Cellulosic biofuels, […]
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Not cheap and not plentiful: Hyped-up synthetic biology claims take another blow as malaria drug production plant shuts down
by Almuth Ernsting Synthetic biology is being heavily promoted and funded as a way to produce large quantities of cheap industrial products, including biofuels. But so far affordable, large-scale manufacture with synbio organisms has proven elusive. Synbio start-up companies that set out to produce high volumes of low-cost biofuels have switched to low volumes of […]
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Speak up for the regulation of new GM techniques!
The European Commission is about to decide whether or not a set of new genetic engineering techniques should be regulated as GM. Let them know why they should and why it matters to you. We’re supporting GM Freeze’s action to write to the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, to let him know that […]
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‘Rogue scientists’ could exploit gene editing technology – or are they already?
An article in The Guardian (copied below) describes how a senior geneticist and a bioethicist is in agreement with a US security chief that gene-editing presents a serious risk to national security, equivalent to North Korea’s WMDs. Whilst the focus is on accidentally (or deliberately) releasing viruses, or the inevitability of “designer babies”, the researchers […]
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Sino-Genta?
by ETC Group And soon there will be three. Joy of six heads towards a “ménage à trois” For more background, see ETC Group’s recent report: Breaking Bad: Big Ag Mega-Mergers in Play [i] For a decade, six multinationals have controlled 75% of the world’s high-tech seeds and pesticides businesses. Late last year, Dow and DuPont agreed to merge and now state-owned ChemChina is […]
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Beware False Promises: Algal Oils and Other Products of Synthetic Biology Aren’t About to Save the Orangutan…. But Carry Serious New Risks
Joint briefing by Biofuelwatch and Friends of the Earth United States: Beware False Promises: Algal Oils and Other Products of Synthetic Biology Aren’t About to Save the Orangutan…. But Carry Serious New Risk “Algal oil” and “oily yeast” have been aggressively promoted as promising alternatives to palm oil and potential saviours of orangutans. At the […]
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New Report: Biotech industry lobby intent on ransack of EU GMO rules
Reposted from Corporate Europe Observatory. Food safety, the environment, and consumer choice are at stake, as biotech industry lobbyists pressure decision makers to deregulate a new generation of genetic engineering techniques ahead of a crucial European Commission decision in February. “Biotech lobby’s push for new GMOs to escape regulation”, a new report by Corporate Europe […]
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Brussels biotech lobby’s last push for ‘GM 2.0’ technologies to escape regulation
by Nina Holland (The Ecologist) Biotech corporations have invested billions in a range of new ‘GM 2.0’ technologies designed to redesign the world’s germplasm and create new generations of super-GMOs, writes Nina Holland. And powerful investors have no intention of letting tedious EU regulations get in the way of the profits they are now poised […]
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New GM food could end up on your plate untested and unlabelled
by franziska achterberg (Greenpeace EU Unit) After two decades of commercial use, Europeans still can’t stomach genetically modified (GM) food. But their producers may have found a way to bypass public opposition and safety regulation. A new range of GM plants and animals could soon end up on the dinner table without any testing or labelling, […]