The indefatigable analysts of the ETC Group have produced an important new report called The New Biomassters: Synthetic Biology and the Next Assault on Biodiversity and Livelihoods. It's an extensive, well-documented critique of what is being called "the new bioeconomy":
Sold as an ecological switch from a 'black carbon' (ie fossil) economy to a 'green carbon' (plant-based) economy, this emerging bioeconomy is in fact a red-hot resource grab of the lands, livelihoods, knowledge and resources of peoples in the global South, where most of that biomass is located.
The 84-page report is available from here as a pdf.
A related ETC publication, released last week, is Gene Giants Stockpile Patents on "Climate-Ready" Crops in Bid to Become Biomassters [pdf linked here]. It documents the extraordinary concentration of relevant patents in the hands of a few corporations -- two-thirds are held by three companies, more than three-quarters by six, less than 10% by the public sector.
Previously on Biopolitical Times:
Posted in Biotech & Pharma, Environmentalism, Human Rights, Patents & Other IP, Pete Shanks's Blog Posts, Synthetic Biology
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