Rural Advancement Foundation International, ETC Group
Pat Roy Mooney, for more than thirty years, has worked with civil society organizations on international trade and development issues related to agriculture, biodiversity and emerging technologies. He was born and lived on the Canadian prairies for many years where his five children were raised. He now resides just outside the village of Wakefield, QC. The author or co-author of several books on the politics of biotechnology and biodiversity, Pat Mooney received the Right Livelihood Award with Cary Fowler in the Swedish Parliament in 1985 for "working to save the world's genetic plant heritage." In 1998 Mooney received the Pearson Medal of Peace from Canada’s Governor General. He also received the American "Giraffe Award" given to people "who stick their necks out". Pat Mooney has no formal university training, but is widely regarded as an authority on agricultural biodiversity and new technology issues. In June of 2017, he received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Waterloo, Canada, and a Doctor Honoris Causa from the Mexican Instituto de Estudios Criticos, 17.
Together with Cary Fowler and Hope Shand, Pat Mooney began working on the "seeds" issue in 1977. In 1984, the three co-founded RAFI (Rural Advancement Foundation International), whose name was changed to ETC Group (pronounced "etcetera" group) in 2001. ETC Group is a small international CSO addressing the impact of new technologies on vulnerable communities. Mooney’s more recent work has focused on geoengineering, nanotechnology, synthetic biology and global governance of these technologies as well as corporate involvement in their development. ETC has offices in Canada, the United States, and Mexico; and works closely with CSO partners around the worl
Writings (selection)
Seeds of the Earth: A Private or Public Resource?, Food First Books, 1983
Shattering: Food, Politics, and the Loss of Genetic Diversity, University of Arizona Press, 1990, ISBN0-8165-1181-0
The Green Revolution, or the Third Agricultural Revolution, is the set of research technology transfer initiatives occurring between 1950 and the late 1960s, that increased agricultural production in parts of the world, beginning most markedly in the late 1960s. The initiatives resulted in the adoption of new technologies, including high-yielding varieties (HYVs) of cereals, especially dwarf wheat and rice. It was associated with chemical fertilizers, agrochemicals, and controlled water-supply and newer methods of cultivation, including mechanization. All of these together were seen as a 'package of practices' to supersede 'traditional' technology and to be adopted as a whole. The key elements of the revolution include: 1) Use of the latest technological and capital inputs, 2) adoption of modern scientific methods of farming, 3) use of high yielding varieties of seeds, 4) proper use of chemical fertilizers, 5) consolidation of land holdings, 6) Use of various mechanical machineries. Both the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation were heavily involved in its initial development in Mexico. One key leader was agricultural scientist Norman Borlaug, the "Father of the Green Revolution", who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. He is credited with saving over a billion people from starvation. The basic approach was the development of high-yielding varieties of cereal grains, expansion of irrigation infrastructure, modernization of management techniques, distribution of hybridized seeds, synthetic fertilizers, and pesticides to farmers. As the development of new cereal varieties through selective breeding reached their limits, some agricultural scientists turned to the creation of new strains that did not exist in nature, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), a phenomenon sometimes called the Gene Revolution.
Vandana Shiva is an Indian scholar, environmental activist, food sovereignty advocate, ecofeminist and anti-globalisation author. Based in Delhi, Shiva has written more than 20 books. She is often referred as "Gandhi of grain" for her activism associated with anti-GMO movement.
The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, is a comprehensive international agreement in harmony with the Convention on Biological Diversity, which aims at guaranteeing food security through the conservation, exchange and sustainable use of the world's plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA), the fair and equitable benefit sharing arising from its use, as well as the recognition of farmers' rights. It was signed in 2001 in Madrid, and entered into force on 29 June 2004.
Norman Ernest Borlaug was an American agronomist who led initiatives worldwide that contributed to the extensive increases in agricultural production termed the Green Revolution. Borlaug was awarded multiple honors for his work, including the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal.
Food sovereignty is a food system in which the people who produce, distribute, and consume food also control the mechanisms and policies of food production and distribution. This stands in contrast to the present corporate food regime, in which corporations and market institutions control the global food system. Food sovereignty emphasises local food economies, culturally appropriate, and sustainable food availability. This system centers indigenous peoples impacted by issues of food production and distribution, due to changing climates and disrupted foodways which impact the ability of indigenous populations to access traditional food sources, and contribute to higher rates of certain diseases. These needs have been addressed in recent years by several international organizations, including the United Nations, with several countries adopting food sovereignty policies into law. Critics of food sovereignty activism believe that the system is founded on inaccurate baseline assumptions; disregards the origins of the targeted problems; and is plagued by a lack of consensus for proposed solutions.
The Pearson Medal of Peace is an award given out annually by the United Nations Association in Canada to recognize an individual Canadian's "contribution to international service". Nominations are made by any Canadian for any Canadian, excluding self-nominations. The medal was first announced in 1979 and named in honour of Lester B. Pearson, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Canada's fourteenth Prime Minister. The medal was to be selected by a jury of "eminent Canadians" and awarded by the Governor-General of Canada on United Nations Day, October 24. After the 2004 medal was awarded to Roméo Dallaire, it was not awarded again until it was revived in 2011 to honour peace activist Ernie Regehr.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center is a non-profit research-for-development organization that develops improved varieties of wheat and maize with the aim of contributing to food security, and innovates agricultural practices to help boost production, prevent crop disease and improve smallholder farmers' livelihoods. CIMMYT is one of the 15 CGIAR centers. CIMMYT is known for hosting the world's largest maize and wheat genebank at its headquarters in Mexico.
Agricultural biodiversity is a sub-set of general biodiversity. Otherwise known as agrobiodiversity, agricultural biodiversity is a broad term that includes "the variety and variability of animals, plants and micro-organisms at the genetic, species and ecosystem levels that sustain the ecosystem structures, functions and processes in and around production systems, and that provide food and non-food agricultural products.” managed by farmers, pastoralists, fishers and forest dwellers, agrobiodiversity provides stability, adaptability and resilience and constitutes a key element of the livelihood strategies of rural communities throughout the world. Agrobiodiversity is central to sustainable food systems and sustainable diets. The use of agricultural biodiversity can contribute to food security, nutrition security, and livelihood security, and it is critical for climate adaptation and climate mitigation.
In agriculture and gardening, seed saving is the practice of saving seeds or other reproductive material from vegetables, grain, herbs, and flowers for use from year to year for annuals and nuts, tree fruits, and berries for perennials and trees. This is the traditional way farms and gardens were maintained for the last 12,000 years.
The Plant Patent Act of 1930 is a United States federal law spurred by the work of Luther Burbank and the nursery industry. This piece of legislation made it possible to patent new varieties of plants, excluding sexual and tuber-propagated plants. Plant patents, such as PP12 'PLUM', were issued to Burbank posthumously. In supporting the legislation, Thomas Edison testified before Congress in support of the legislation and said,
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a secure backup facility for the world's crop diversity on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen in the remote Arctic Svalbard archipelago. The Seed Vault provides long-term storage of duplicates of seeds conserved in genebanks around the world. This provides security of the world’s food supply against the loss of seeds in genebanks due to mismanagement, accident, equipment failures, funding cuts, and natural disasters. The Seed Vault is managed under terms spelled out in a tripartite agreement among the Norwegian Government, the Crop Trust, and the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen).
The Crop Trust, officially known as the Global Crop Diversity Trust, is an international nonprofit organization with a secretariat in Bonn, Germany. Its mission is to conserve and make available the world's crop diversity for food security.
Morgan Carrington "Cary" Fowler Jr. is an American agriculturalist and the former executive director of the Crop Trust, currently serving as a senior advisor to the trust.
Crop diversity is the variance in genetic and phenotypic characteristics of plants used in agriculture. Over the past 50 years, there has been a major decline in two components of crop diversity; genetic diversity within each crop and the number of species commonly grown.
Rajeev Kumar Varshney is an agricultural scientist, specializing in genomics, genetics, molecular breeding and capacity building in developing countries. Varsheny is currently the Research Program Director- Genetic Gains that includes several units viz. Genomics & Trait Discovery, Forward Breeding, Pre-Breeding, Cell, Molecular Biology & Genetic Engineering, Seed Systems, Biotechnology- ESA, Sequencing and Informatics Services Unit, and Genebank ; and Director, Center of Excellence in Genomics & Systems Biology at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), a global agricultural research institute. He holds Adjunct/Honorary/Visiting Professor positions at 10 academic institutions in Australia, China, Ghana, Hong Kong and India, including Murdoch University, The University of Western Australia, University of Queensland, West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement, University of Hyderabad, Chaudhary Charan Singh University and Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University.
Erna Bennett (1925–2012) was a plant geneticist and one of the early pioneers of genetic conservation. She was one of the first to raise the issue of biodiversity loss at the United Nations.
ETC Group is an international organization dedicated to "the conservation and sustainable advancement of cultural and ecological diversity and human rights." The full legal name is Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration. "ETC" is intended to be pronounced "et cetera." The ETC Group often publishes opinions on scientific research; its staff and board members come from a variety of backgrounds, including community and regional planning, ecology and evolutionary biology, and political science.
The Seed Savers' Network (SSN) is an Australian not-for-profit organisation, based in Byron Bay, New South Wales. Since 1986, SSN has organised gardeners and farmers to collect, multiply and redistribute garden seeds in Australia and also within peasant organisations worldwide.
The Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) is an organization that developed and maintains a mechanism through which plant breeders can designate the new crop varieties they have bred as open source. This mechanism is advanced as an alternative to patent-protected seeds sold by large agriculture companies such as Monsanto or DuPont. OSSI is a U.S. based not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization focusing on establishing a protected commons of open source varieties and on educational and outreach activities associated with the development of this open source seed commons and on seed rights and issues related to the control of seed.
Michèle Marcotte, Ph.D., is a pioneer in food processing research. As a federal scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), she created a new method of fruit dehydration which can also be applied to vegetables, meat, or fish known as osmotic dehydration. Collaboration with private industry led to the design, development, installation, and start-up of a custom build dried-cranberry production line that is unique to the world. Her research was recognized with several awards including one from the Canadian Society for Bioengineering. Marcotte is currently the Director of the Ottawa Research and Development Centre located at the Central Experimental Farm in Canada.
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