ETC Group Hosts Workshops on Nanotechnology and Corporate Monopoly, London

[Guest guest]

ETC Group Hosts Workshops on Nanotechnology and

Corporate Monopoly at European Social Forum, London

World Food Day, 16 October 2004

 

The ETC Group will host two workshops at the European Social Forum in

London on Saturday, 16 October. Details about these and other World

Food Day events appear below.

 

Beyond GM: Nanotechnology (Workshop 778)

Saturday 11.30am-1.30pm, 16 October 2004

Venue: University of London Union - Room 3D - Bloomsbury.

 

Description: Nanotechnology, the manipulation of matter at the scale

of atoms and molecules, is converging with biotech, infotech and

neurosciences to create the world's most powerful technological

platform. No government has developed a regulatory regime that

addresses the nano-scale or the societal impacts of the invisibly

small. With nanotech products already on the market and the promise

of a trillion dollar industry by 2011, civil society and governments

alike have been slow to address the seismic shifts and disruptions

that nanoscale technologies will bring - and especially the

consequences for the poor, the disabled, human health, the

environment, trade, and the very meaning of what it is to be human.

 

Hot on the heels of the GM food controversy, nanotech has profound

implications for farmers and for food sovereignty worldwide.

Nano-scale technologies are enabling industry to reshape our

agricultural and food systems with atomically modified seeds, new

pesticide delivery vehicles, surveillance technologies, and nanoscale

food additives.

 

Speakers: Caroline Lucas (Green MEP), Andrew Scott (Intermediate

Technology Development Group), Doug Parr (Greenpeace), Tom Wakeford

(PEALS), Mike Reinsborough (PGA), Olaf Bayer (Corporate Watch), Alex

Vlanda (Scientists For Global Responsibility), Rob Doubleday

(Cambridge Nanoscience Lab), Will Holloway (Poet), Kathy Jo Wetter

and Jim Thomas (ETC Group)

 

Resisting corporate monopolies and new enclosures (Workshop 1098)

Saturday, 2 - 4 pm, 16 October 2004

Venue: University of London Union - Malet Room - Bloomsbury

 

Description: While corporations are using exclusive monopoly patents

to gain increasing control over life and over the fundamental

building bocks of nature, they are also applying a series of new

legal and technological strategies to enforce their monopolies,

enclose common knowledge and deny access. This workshop will look at

the range of legal and technological devices being used to create

corporate monopolies and attempts to resist and build alternatives.

 

Speakers: James Wildon (Demos), Laurence Vandewalle (European

Greens), Birgit Muller (ATTAC), Ricarda Steinbrecher (Econexus), MJ

Ray (Association for Free Software), Claire Fauset (Corporate Watch),

Kathy Jo Wetter and Jim Thomas (ETC Group).

 

Registration is required to attend the European Social Forum. For

information on registration, go to: http://www.fse-esf.org/

 

For a schedule of World Food Day events at the ESF go to:

http://www.ukabc.org/wfd-esf2004.htm

 

 

Also on World Food Day, October 16, 2004, in Italy:

 

Silvia Ribeiro and Pat Mooney of ETC Group will speak at the 1st

International Congress: " Science and Society, the border of

invisibility - biomedicine, nanotechnology, nutriceuticals, and

nanobiotechnology, " hosted by the Genetic Rights Council (Consiglio

dei Diritti Genetici), in collaboration with the Region of Tuscany

and the Municipality of Lastra a Signa, in Florence, Italy.

 

Silvia Ribeiro - " Controlling Consumers: Nutriceuticals, Genomics and

Nano-Food "

 

Pat Mooney - " Technological Tsunami: Nanotechnology and Beyond "