ETC News: Nanotech in Food & Ag

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ETC News: Nanotech in Food & Ag

 

Thu, 25 Nov 2004 16:26:03 -0700 (MST)

 

 

 

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, Nestlé and Kraft - are conducting research and development

® 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: hope Kathy Jo Wetter: kjo

ETC Group - North Carolina, USA phone: 1-919-960-5223

 

Jim Thomas jim

ETC Group - Oxford, UK phone: +44 1865 201719 mobile: +44 7752

106806

 

Silvia Ribeiro: silvia

ETC Group - Mexico City phone: +52 5555 6326 64 mobile: +52 5526 5333

30

 

Pat Mooney: etc

ETC Group - Ottawa, Canada phone: 1-613-241-2267

 

 

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