Category Archives: Synthetic Biology

by | May 8, 2013 · 12:00 pm

A dream of trees aglow at night

Note: If successful, this would be the world’s first environmental release of a Synthetic Biology (also known as “extreme Genetic Engineering”) organism, setting a disastrous precedent for industry without any regulatory oversight whatsoever.

ETC Group and others have launched a “Kickstopper” project to put the brakes on this dangerous development.  Relatedly, later this month, Global Justice Ecology Project, Earth First!, and the Campaign to STOP GE Trees will be coordinating a major week of protest at the Tree Biotechnology 2013 Conference in Asheville, NC — click here to join us!

-The GJEP Team

By Andrew Pollack, May 7 2013. Source: The New York Times

Antony Evans, left, and Kyle Taylor show E. coli with jellyfish genes. Photo: Peter DaSilva for The New York Times

Antony Evans, left, and Kyle Taylor show E. coli with jellyfish genes. Photo: Peter DaSilva for The New York Times

Hoping to give new meaning to the term “natural light,” a small group of biotechnology hobbyists and entrepreneurs has started a project to develop plants that glow, potentially leading the way for trees that can replace electric streetlamps and potted flowers luminous enough to read by.

The project, which will use a sophisticated form of genetic engineering called synthetic biology, is attracting attention not only for its audacious goal, but for how it is being carried out.

Rather than being the work of a corporation or an academic laboratory, it will be done by a small group of hobbyist scientists in one of the growing number of communal laboratories springing up around the nation as biotechnology becomes cheap enough to give rise to a do-it-yourself movement.

The project is also being financed in a D.I.Y. sort of way: It has attracted more than $250,000 in pledges from about 4,500 donors in about two weeks on the Web site Kickstarter. Continue reading →

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by | March 27, 2013 · 3:15 pm

Making living matter programmable

Note: To learn about the economic, social and environmental dangers of synthetic biology, check out Synbiowatch

-The GJEP Team

By Robert Sanders, March 26 2013. Source: UC Berkeley News Center

Jay Keasling (left), director of SynBERC, and moderator Corey Powell of Discover listen as Monsanto scientist Virginia Ursin explains the company’s interest in synthetic biology. Photo: Christine Fu

Jay Keasling (left), director of SynBERC, and moderator Corey Powell of Discover listen as Monsanto scientist Virginia Ursin explains the company’s interest in synthetic biology. Photo: Christine Fu

BERKELEY —Thirty years ago, the future lay in programming computers. Today, it’s programming cells.

That was the message of panelists at an afternoon session yesterday (March 25) in Stanley Hall auditorium titled “Programming Life: the revolutionary potential of synthetic biology.” Co-presented by UC Berkeley’s Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center (SynBERC) and Discover magazine, the panels brought together a dozen of synthetic biology’s pioneers from academia and industry, in addition to ethicists focused on the societal impact of the technology.

Keynote speaker Juan Enriquez, a self-described “curiosity expert” and co-founder of the company Synthetic Genomics, compared the digital revolution spawned by thinking of information as a string of ones and zeros to the coming synthetic biology revolution, premised on thinking about life as a mix of interchangeable parts – genes and gene networks – that can be learned and manipulated like any language.

At the moment, this genetic manipulation, a natural outgrowth of genetic engineering, focuses on altering bacteria and yeast to produce products they wouldn’t normally make, such as fuels or drugs. “To do with biology what you would do if you were designing a piece of software,” according to moderator Corey Powell, editor at large of Discover, which plans to publish a story about the conference and post the video online. Continue reading →

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by | March 1, 2013 · 9:00 am

University of California joins Monsanto in fight against farmer

Note: The precedent set by this case could have profound implications for GE trees, should they escape onto private lands or public parks.

-The GJEP Team

By Jeff Conant, February 28, 2013.  Source: 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 that seeds are seeds, designed by nature to reproduce, and that therefore farmers have the right to plant them as they always have; the company’s claim is that its patent on a particular technology embedded in the seed extends to future generations of that seed’s stock.

As the NY Times reports, “The question in the case, Bowman v. Monsanto Company, No. 11-796, was whether patent rights to seeds and other things that can replicate themselves extend beyond the first generation. The justices appeared alert to the consequences of their eventual ruling not only for Monsanto’s very lucrative soybean patents but also for modern agriculture generally and for areas as varied as vaccines, cell lines and software.”

Back in 2007, a federal judge in Indiana ordered Mr. Bowman to pay Monsanto more than $84,000. The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which specializes in patent cases, upheld that decision, saying that by planting the seeds Mr. Bowman had infringed Monsanto’s patents.

The rationale for infinite generational patent protection was given by Chief Justice Roberts in his opening question to Bowman’s lawyer: ”Why in the world would anybody spend any money to try to improve the seed if as soon as they sold the first one anybody could grow more and have as many of those seeds as they want?”
Continue reading →

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Filed under Commodification of Life, Commons, Corporate Globalization, Food Sovereignty, GE Trees, Genetic Engineering, Industrial agriculture, Posts from Jeff Conant, Synthetic Biology

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by | February 27, 2013 · 9:00 am

Everglades Earth First! brings anti-biotech fight to Kolter Group

February 26, 2013. Source: Earth First! Newswire

Land deal could signify move forward for Scripps’ biotech city on Briger forest

Today in West Palm Beach, Florida, Everglades Earth First! (EEF!) announced their official opposition to the Kolter Group’s purchase of the Briger Forest. The EEF! collective, which maintained a 6-week treesit on the site in 2011, visited the corporate office of the venture capitalist vultures at Kolter with this message: “If you buy Briger you’re buying the community resistance to the Scripps Florida Phase II project.” The project has been contested for years, with multiple legal challenges citing impacts to protected species, including hand fern and gopher tortoise.

While his underlings call him Bobby, after watching this video, you may want to call him Blinky. …Has Scripps gone into genetically engineering robot CEO’s?!

While his underlings call him Bobby, after watching this video, you may want to call him Blinky. …Has Scripps gone into genetically engineering robot CEO’s?!

In case you want to pay a visit (or send a letter) to Kolter Group Co yourself, their address is 701 S. Olive Avenue, West Palm Beach, FL 33401. And you can call them at (561) 682-9500, or fax (561) 682-1050. The CEO’s name is Robert Julien, but his underlings seem to call him Bobby. His extension is 221.

Although the Kolter Group claims to be committed to “creating better communities” they seem to have little issue with building homes and businesses within close proximity of the proposed biotech facility. These facilities are known to transport undisclosed hazardous materials. EEF! says they have little faith in Scripps’ ability or intent to keep these materials out of the Intracoastal Waterway and Palm Beach County’s drinking supply. “We are appalled by the apparent negligence of this decision and Kolter’s compliance and culpability in this debacle.”
Continue reading →

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by | February 21, 2013 · 10:30 am

Report: Land grabbing for biofuels must stop

February 21 2013. Source: GRAIN

Aerial photo of the lands taken by Addax Bioenergy for its sugar cane plantation in Sierra Leone. Photo: Le Temps

Aerial photo of the lands taken by Addax Bioenergy for its sugar cane plantation in Sierra Leone. Photo: Le Temps

Zainab Kamara is one of several thousand farmers in Sierra Leone whose lands have been taken over by the Swiss company Addax Bioenergy for a 10,000 hectare sugar cane plantation to produce ethanol for export to Europe.”Now I don’t have a farm. Starvation is killing people. We have to buy rice to survive because we don’t grow our own now,” she says.

In neighbouring Guinea, peasants are trying to understand how their government could have possibly signed off 700,000 ha of their lands to an Italian company to grow jatropha for biodiesel.

On another continent, Guarani communities in Brazil are locked in battles of survival against companies that want their lands to produce ethanol from sugar cane.

It’s a similar story in Indonesia where the Malind and other indigenous peoples of West Papua are desperately fighting a massive project to convert their lands into sugar cane and oil palm plantations, and in Colombia, where Afro-Colombian communities are being pressured by paramilitaries to leave their lands to make way for oil palm plantations.

To read the full report, click here.

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Filed under Africa, Biodiversity, Bioenergy / Agrofuels, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Commodification of Life, Corporate Globalization, Ending the Era of Extreme Energy, Energy, False Solutions to Climate Change, Food Sovereignty, Forests, Forests and Climate Change, GE Trees, Genetic Engineering, Green Economy, Greenwashing, Indigenous Peoples, Industrial agriculture, Land Grabs, Latin America-Caribbean, Synthetic Biology, The Greed Economy and the Future of Forests, Water

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by | February 6, 2013 · 12:00 pm

Nanoparticles in food raise concerns

By Stephanie Strom, February 5, 2013

Nanomaterials, substances broken down by technology into molecule-size particles, are starting to enter the food chain through well-known food products and their packaging, but there is little acknowledgment by the companies using them, according to a new report from a nonprofit group that works to enhance corporate accountability.

Some companies may not even know whether nanomaterials are present in their products, the corporate accountability group As You Sow said.

Only 26 out of 2,500 companies, including PepsiCo, Whole Foods and the corporate parent of Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, responded to a survey from As You Sow about their use of nanomaterials.

“Only 14 said they don’t use nanomaterials, and of those only two had any policies on the use of nanomaterials,” said Andy Behar, chief executive of As You Sow. Various food companies have said they are interested in nanotechnology, which can help make products creamier without additional fat, intensify and improve flavors and brighten colors.

Their small size allows nanoparticles to go places in the body where larger particles cannot and enter cells. They have been found in the blood stream after ingestion and inhalation, and while research on their health effects is limited, studies have shown them to have deleterious effects on mice and cells.

“We’re not taking a no nano position,” Mr. Behar said. “We’re saying just show it’s safe before you put these things into food or food packaging.”

He noted that the European Union requires labeling of foods containing nanomaterials and that the European Food Safety Authority has published guidance for assessing nanomaterials in food and animal feed.

Last April, the Food and Drug Administration issued an unusually emphatic statement on nanomaterials, saying it did not have enough data to determine the safety of nanomaterials in food.

The Environmental Protection Agency is evaluating various nanoparticles used in consumer products, like sunscreens.

As You Sow tested 10 varieties of powdered doughnuts for the presence of nanoparticles. With the help of an independent lab, it found that Hostess Donettes and Dunkin’ Donuts Powdered Cake Donuts tested positive for the presence of titanium dioxide materials of less than 10 nanometers. Titanium dioxide is used to brighten white substances. The nano variety is under investigation by the E.P.A.

Michelle King, a spokeswoman for Dunkin’ Donuts, said the company was working with its supplier to validate As You Sow’s findings. Hostess Brands went out of business during the test and closed its factories.

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by | January 31, 2013 · 4:30 pm

San Diego to host Pacific Rim summit on biotech and bioenergy

Note: From our friends at Synbiowatch:

“Twelve years ago, a biotech conference in San Diego drew thousands of protesters, during a peak of activity challenging corporate patents on life and the cynical smokescreen of pro-poor policies and ‘feeding the world.’ Now, as global trade regimes have further concentrated and biotech has consolidated its role as a keystone industry not just in the food and big pharma sectors, but also in the energy sector, another biotech conference in the same city should invite even greater critique and resistance. The false promise of these technologies is simply taking too large a share of the dwindling economic pie to let it go unchallenged.” 

–The GJEP Team

Cross-posted from the San Diego Business Journal

San Diego will host the 2013 Pacific Rim Summit on Biotechnology and Bioenergy this December. The conference will focus on the growth of the industrial biotech and bioenergy sectors in North America and the Asia-Pacific region.

The Washington, D.C.-based Biotechnology Industry Organization, the world’s largest biotech trade organization, has teamed up with San Diego’s BIOCOM to put on the four-day conference, which will be held December 8-11 at the Westin Gaslamp Quarter in San Diego. Continue reading →

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by | January 29, 2013 · 1:30 pm

Laugh or cry? Obama’s new commitment on climate change

Note: Rachel Smolker is co-director of Biofuelwatch, and long time friend and former staff at Global Justice Ecology Project.

–The GJEP Team

By Rachel Smolker, January 28 2013. Source: Huffington Post

Photo: AP Photo

Photo: AP Photo

In his inaugural address, President Obama spoke eloquently about his intent to address climate change,saying: “We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.” Following on, the right-wing deniers predictably flew into a frenzy of obnoxious blather, largely serving to clog up the media. Meanwhile the liberals, progressives and enviros cheered with glee, as if the mere mention of the word “climate” were a big happy victory, a frankly pathetic display that I can only imagine the right-wing deniers found amusing. The spectrum of responses is a clear reflection of the extreme dysfunction of, most especially, Washington D.C. Even as Sandy smashed NYC to smithereens and prolonged drought decimated crops across the Midwest, the leader of the country most responsible for this frightening mess is so cowed by his detractors as to feel it necessary to wait until after his reelection to even mention that seven-letter word? Oh yay. Continue reading →

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by | January 26, 2013 · 10:40 am

Court overturns EPA biofuels mandate

Note: It isn’t often that we would find a ruling in favor of the American Petroleum Institute as good news.  A recent federal court decision overthrowing an EPA mandate that would have required fuel producers to incorporate biofuels into gasoline and diesel is cause for celebration.  The increasing use of biofuels have sparked a massive land grab in the global south, and present great risks to natural ecosystems and the world’s agricultural land.  Further, recent studies suggest that some biofuel production may contribute more to climate change than other traditional fuel sources. While this ruling is not putting an end to the new “bioeconomy’, it is raising the question of how realistic it is to replace oil, the lifeblood of the industrial economy, with biofuels.  Mandates requiring alternatives to fossil fuels are useless unless overconsumption is addressed.

-The GJEP Team

By Matthew Wald, January 25, 2013.  Source: NY Times

Photo: John Van Beekum/NY Times

Photo: John Van Beekum/NY Times

A federal appeals court threw out a federal rule on renewable fuels on Friday, saying that a quota set by theEnvironmental Protection Agency for incorporating liquids made from woody crops and wastes into car and truck fuels was based on wishful thinking rather than realistic estimates of what could be achieved.

The ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia involved a case brought by the American Petroleum Institute, whose members were bound by the 2012 cellulosic biofuels quota being challenged.

Production of advanced biofuels for use in gasoline is a cherished goal of the Obama administration and a major long-term hope for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.

But production of the “cellulosic” fuel, made from woody material, has been slow to start up, making it virtually impossible to come by. That has presented the refiners, the ones required to buy the cellulosic fuel, with a quandary.

From 2010 through 2012, the EPA has required gradually higher levels of cellulosic fuel to be incorporated into motor fuel each year, for a total of 20 million gallons to date.

Continue reading →

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by | December 13, 2012 · 1:30 pm

Cellulosic biofuel to surge in 2013 as first plants open

By Andrew Herndon, December 11, 2012.  Source: Bloomberg

Photo: Kimimasa Mayama/Bloomberg

Photo: Kimimasa Mayama/Bloomberg

Cellulosic biofuel companies will boost production almost 20-fold in 2013 as the first high-volume refineries go into operation, signaling a shift from an experimental fuel into a commercially viable industry.

Production of the fuel made from crop waste, wood chips, household trash and other non-food organic sources will reach 9.6 million gallons (36 million liters) in 2013, up from less than 500,000 gallons this year, according to data compiled by the U.S. Energy Information Administration and obtained by Bloomberg News.

That gain will leave the industry short of the government’s target for 1 billion gallons that gasoline and diesel producers are expected to blend into their products next year under a federal energy regulation. The industry may not meet those targets for another five years, and companies from Kior Inc. (KIOR) to Abengoa SA (ABG) are closing the gap.

Kior opened the first commercial cellulosic biofuel plant in the U.S. in October and will break ground early next year on its second facility, which will be able to produce about 40 million gallons a year, Kate Perez, a spokeswoman, said in an e- mail yesterday. “We believe that there will be ample opportunity in this space for many years to come,” she said.
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