Category: Issues
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ETC & FOE “Kickstopper” Campaign Takes Aim at SynBio Kickstarter Effort to Distribute Synthetically Engineered Seeds
Kickstopper! – Putting a Stop to Synthetic Biology Pollution ETC to launch counter-Kickstarter campaign to prevent release of synthetic organisms At the end of April 2013, ETC Group learned that three biohackers from the ultra-libertarian Singularity University in California had mounted a project on the popular crowdfunding site Kickstarter. It was a plan to carry out the […]
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Mass Release of Synthetically Engineered Plant Seeds via Kickstarter Campaign Draws Protest
An Israeli company seeks to use a loophole in US regulations on genetically engineered plants to conduct a mass release of a genetically modified organism (a glow in the dark Arabidopsis plant) with no regulatory review. Current US regulations, which would apply if the plant were modified using non-synthetic techniques, don’t cover the new gene […]
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Articles on Human Genetics and Synthetic Biology by Stuart Newman
In advance of his conversation with Milton Reynolds at East Bay Conversations on June 6, 2013, Stuart Newman shares selected articles he has written over the past 10 years on human genetics and synthetic biology. Stuart Newman received an A.B. from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in chemical physics from the University of Chicago. He […]
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New “Semisynthetic” Anti-malarial Drug is Unneeded and Sets Dangerous Precedent while Threatening Farmer Livelihoods.
SynBioWatch Press Release: For Immediate Release April 15, 2013 Contact: Lisa Archer, Gopal Dayaneni, or Tina Stevens, , (510) 982-1285, info@SynBioWatch.org Pharmaceutical giant Sanofi Aventis and Amyris Biotech founder Jay Keasling have announced that they intend to replace the entire world supply of the World Health Organization’s preferred anti-malarial treatment derived from botanical artemisinin with a […]
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Synthetic Anti-Malarial Compound is Bad News for Artemisia Farmers
by Jim Thomas Originally published by the Guardian UK Artemisinin breakthrough by synthetic biologists threatens to open new front in battle between microbes and people In the constant fight between microbes and people, attempts to rein in the malarial parasite have just taken an interesting turn. On Thursday April 11 the founder of Amyris […]
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Should We Be Trying to Bring Extinct Species Back to Life?
By Pete Shanks There’s a buzz now around bringing species back from the dead. There’s even a spiffy new name for it: “de-extinction.” To some people, it sounds cute and cool and seems to be a sort of compensation for the human complicity in driving species out of existence in the first place. To others, it’s a business opportunity. Environmentalists should not be fooled by the flim-flam and should be very wary of the implications of this campaign.
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UK Guardian: Synthetic Biology Advocates Woo Conservationists with Bio-Engineering “Solutions” to Species Extinction
Reposted from the Guardian: Call for DNA biologists to join fight against deadly new threats to wildlife Research into creation of a new generation of synthetic organisms could be the way to save some of the natural world’s most endangered species, according to conservationists The Panamanian golden frog has been pushed close to extinction by […]
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Food Made from Scratch By Eric Hoffman
Reposted from GENEWATCH March 29, 2013″ “Agriculture as we know it needs to disappear. …We can design better and healthier proteins than we get from nature.” – J. Craig Venter1 A (very) short history of agriculture For ten thousand years humans have been manipulating plants for food production. This began at a very basic level, […]
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WATCH: When Green Tech Isn’t Clean Tech, ETC Group’s technology watchdog Jim Thomas and Fibershed Founder Rebecca Burgess in Dialog with Gopal Dayeneni
Watch an archived broadcast of East Bay Conversations: When Green Tech Isn’t Clean Tech (3/21/2013) Synthetic biology includes creating novel life forms using DNA not found in nature, promising “green” fuel, cosmetics, cures, and more. Geoengineering promises techno fixes for climate change, including limiting sunlight and removing CO2 from the air. ETC Group’s technology watchdog Jim Thomas and Fibershed Founder Rebecca Burgess tell us what we’re not hearing from promoters about these “false solutions” — their land grabs, environmental and safety risks, and threats to “real green” technology solutions.
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University of California Joins Monsanto in Fight Against Farmer
by Jeff Conant, for synbiowatch Last week, the Supreme Court heard testimonies in the Bowman vs. Monsanto case, wherein the agribusiness giant is fighting an appeal by farmer Vernon Bowman, who the company claims infringed its patent rights by replanting seeds he purchased beyond the bounds of the company’s licensing agreement. The farmer’s claim is […]