Nexus - 1202 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

OB OY Le VEN? NANOTECHNOLOGY'S THREAT TO FOOD AND AGRICULTURE In October, the US Patent and Trademark Office established a new classification for nanotech- oa” nology patents, observes ETC Group. "It's ironic that a compa- ny 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. In 2002, ETC called for a mora- torium on the commercialisation of new nano-scale materials until laboratory protocols and regulato- ry regimes are in place that take into account the special character- istics of these materials and until they are shown to be safe. Accordingly, ETC 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. 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 pro- grammed 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 main - stream scientists are beginning to acknowl- edge), "Down on the Farm" calls for an immediate moratorium on laboratory experimentation and environmental release of synthetic biological materials until soci- ety can engage in a thorough analysis of the health, environmental and socioeco- nomic implications. (Source: ETC Group news release, 23 November 2004, http://www.etcgroup.org) lhe ETC Group, an interna- Y tional research and advocacy organisation based in Ottawa, Canada, recently announced the publication of "Down on the Farm", the first comprehensive look at how nano-scale technolo- gies 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 bil- lionths of metres and quantum physics determines how a sub- stance 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." A handful of food and nutrition products containing invisible and unlabelled nano- scale additives are already on supermarket shelves. In addition, a number of pesti- cides 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 few toxicological studies have been conducted. Most of the world's largest food and beverage corporations—including Unilever, Nestlé and Kraft—are conduct- ing research and development (R&D) 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. The ETC report examines a wide range of current R&D, ranging from atomically modified seeds, nanosensors for precision agriculture, plants engineered to produce metal nanoparticles, nanovaccines for farmed fish, nanobarcodes for tracking and controlling food products, and more. "In the wake of this unparalleled natural disaster, major insurgency groups and several sovereign governments have reassured the public that man-made killing would be returned to as soon as practicable." 6 = NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com FEBRUARY — MARCH 2005