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Abstract
Frankenfoods, designer babies, Dolly the Sheep and Raelian fantasists: few subjects generate as much controversy and misinformation as biotechnology. This book takes the reader behind the headlines to examine the new laws on genetic-based technologies, who's making them, and why.
Steven P. McGiffen offers a lucid analysis of the real implications of biotechnology legislation in the US and the EU, and contrasts it with approaches to agricultural and medical biotech in the rest of the world. He argues that the EU and America are removing decision-making power from the people and their elected representatives. Biotechnology regulation is a local manifestation of a global process of transferring power: from the people to corporations, from poor countries to rich ones, from the public to the private.
He shows that biotechnology demands effective and democratic international decision-making procedures - and that we are very far from achieving them. This is an indispensable guide for activists and anyone who wants to know more about how to control biotech regulation and how to resist handing control of our future to corporations.
'An expert yet accessible overview of the regulation of biotechnology, its champions and its detractors'
Caroline Lucas, Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion
Table of Contents
Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
---|---|---|---|
Contents | v | ||
Introduction | 1 | ||
The European Union | 6 | ||
THE BARCELONA DECLARATION | 6 | ||
WHAT THE EU CAN AND CANNOT DO | 7 | ||
THE STRANGE CASE OF EUROPE’S UNWANTED GMOs | 8 | ||
FIRST STEPS IN REGULATING GMOs | 12 | ||
FROM FIELD TO FORK: THE NEW LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK FOR GMOs | 14 | ||
SEEDS | 24 | ||
CO-EXISTENCE | 27 | ||
LIABILITY | 31 | ||
ENLARGEMENT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION | 33 | ||
THE SIXTH RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME | 35 | ||
PATENT LAW | 37 | ||
The United States | 56 | ||
BOVINE SOMATROPIN | 56 | ||
THE CORPORATE AGENDA | 57 | ||
REGULATION | 62 | ||
REGULATION AND PUBLIC OPINION | 73 | ||
PHARMING | 77 | ||
PATENTS | 82 | ||
REPRODUCTIVE AND THERAPEUTIC CLONING | 86 | ||
BIOETHICISTS | 90 | ||
REGULATORY CAPTURE | 91 | ||
Other Developed Countries | 93 | ||
CANADA | 93 | ||
AUSTRALIA | 104 | ||
NEW ZEALAND | 108 | ||
SWITZERLAND | 117 | ||
JAPAN | 119 | ||
THE NEWLY INDUSTRIALISED COUNTRIES | 122 | ||
Developing Countries | 130 | ||
COULD BIOTECH PUT AN END TO HUNGER? | 130 | ||
THE (ATTEMPTED) RAPE OF AFRICA | 136 | ||
INDIA | 143 | ||
ARGENTINA | 149 | ||
BRAZIL | 153 | ||
ISNAR AND OTHERS: THE CARROT TO BUSH’S STICK | 156 | ||
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION: PRO-BIOTECH PROPAGANDA | 158 | ||
OTHER ADVOCATES OF BIOTECH AS A SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEMS OF DEVELOPMENT | 159 | ||
THIRD WORLD SCEPTICS | 161 | ||
THE REAL SOLUTION LIES ELSEWHERE | 162 | ||
International Treaties and Agreements | 165 | ||
THE (CARTAGENA) BIOSAFETY PROTOCOL TO THE UN CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY | 166 | ||
OTHER INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS TOUCHING ON TRADE IN GMOs | 179 | ||
PROPOSED UNITED NATIONS BAN ON HUMAN CLONING | 182 | ||
UNIVERSAL DECLARATION ON THE HUMAN GENOME AND HUMAN RIGHTS | 184 | ||
ATTEMPTS TO CURB BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS | 185 | ||
Conclusion | 188 | ||
GMOs: IRREVERSIBLE CONTAMINATION OF THE WORLD’S FOOD SUPPLY | 188 | ||
MEDICINE AND HEALTH CARE | 191 | ||
THE BOTTOM LINE | 198 | ||
Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations | 202 | ||
Notes | 208 | ||
Index | 241 |