Category: Updates

  • Seeking serious debate? You’ve been CRISPR-conned.

    Civil Society Statement on CRISPRcon 2019 CRISPRcon advertises itself as a forum that brings together a broad selection of diverse voices to discuss the sweeping potential implications of CRISPR technologies for our food, health and ecosystems. Widespread and grave concerns about the potentially disastrous consequences for humanity and nature arising from CRISPR technologies have been […]

  • News Release: “Bleeding” veggie burger has “no basis for safety,” according to FDA

    News Release: “Bleeding” veggie burger has “no basis for safety,” according to FDA

    Documents show that makers of the “Impossible Burger” ignored FDA’s warnings about safety of burger’s key GMO ingredient Cross-posted from ETC Group.  August 8, 2017 WASHINGTON, D.C. – Creators of a fake-meat burger made with a high-profile genetically engineered ingredient may have landed their experimental industry in a sizzling food safety mess, casting doubt on […]

  • New “Biotech for Biofuels” compilation released

    via Biofuelwatch: “Biotechnology for Biofuels” includes in-depth investigations of three biofuel companies – Algenol, Mascoma, and Solazyme/TerraVia, and will be updated with forthcoming reports on algal and ligno-cellulosic biofuels, followed by further materials. Policy-makers and industry leaders are pinning their hopes on biofuels and an entire bioeconomy where fuels, consumer goods, plastics, chemicals and materials […]

  • Biofuelwatch Responds to First Open Pond Testing of GMO algae

    Cross-posted from Biofuelwatch.  In response to the University of California San Diego and Sapphire Energy’s publication of results from open pond testing of genetically engineered microalgae, Biofuelwatch warns that such tests are far more risky than most people realize, and should be cause for concern, not celebration. It is assumed, and these tests in fact […]

  • Is “Food-Tech” the Future of Food?

    by Dana Perls, senior food and technology campaigner with Friends of the Earth US. Cross-posted from   https://medium.com/@foe_us/is-food-tech-the-future-of-food-49bd414cfb8b  Today in San Francisco at the Future Food-Tech conference, multinational food and agrichemical corporations, Silicon Valley investors, PR companies, big ag astroturf groups, and biotech startups are gathering to map out the future of our food system — and attract […]

  • Genetically modifying a plant is far from harmless

    Genetically modifying a plant is far from harmless

    by Eric Meunier (Inf’OGM) Several new techniques of genetic modification (also called NBT) are currently being discussed worldwide to decide whether to define products obtained from them as GMOs and to regulate them as such, or not. Following a parliamentary hearing in France [1] in April 2016, Inf’OGM tries to figure out some of the potential […]

  • The Perils of Planned Extinctions

    The Perils of Planned Extinctions

    by Claire Hope Cummings (Project Syndicate) HONOLULU – A cynical move is underway to promote a new, powerful, and troubling technology known as “gene drives” for use in conservation. This is not just your everyday genetic modification, known as “GMO”; it is a radical new technology, which creates “mutagenic chain reactions” that can reshape living […]

  • Synthetic biology: A continuing  challenge for the CBD

    Synthetic biology: A continuing challenge for the CBD

    by Helena Paul and Silvia Ribeiro ([square brackets]) The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) pioneered the discussion on synthetic biology at the global level, with the vast majority of countries asking for the full application of precaution. Following the decisions taken at the twelfth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 12) to the […]

  • Biofuel or Biofraud? The Vast Taxpayer Cost of Failed Cellulosic and Algal Biofuels

    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, […]

  • New SynBioWatch newsletter – read the first edition and sign up for future ones!

    New SynBioWatch newsletter – read the first edition and sign up for future ones!

    We’ve just published the first edition of the SynBioWatch newsletter – you can read it here. You can sign up for future editions by entering your email address in the right-hand sidebar of this website.