Friends of the Earth’s blog is a staff-run blog that provides policy analysis, insight and commentary about the environment and other progressive issues, advances our campaigns, and builds momentum for a healthy and just world.
Jan. 10, 2013 / Posted by: Eric Hoffman / Categories: Advocacy, Blog, Food and Technology / Tags: Eric hoffman
Right before the holidays, while most of us were spending time with our families and friends, the Food and Drug Administration was busy giving the biotechnology industry a big, fat, genetically engineered gift. On December 21, the FDA quietly rele...
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Nov. 15, 2012 / Posted by: Eric Hoffman / Categories: Blog, Food and Technology / Tags: Eric hoffman
Election night was a big night for progressive communities across the country. President Obama was re-elected, of course, and he finally called for action on climate change in his victory speech (which he has unfortunately already started to waffl...
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Aug. 23, 2012 / Posted by: Eric Hoffman / Categories: Blog, Food and Technology / Tags: Eric hoffman, Genetic engineering
Here is the biggest problem I face every day: I want to eat an apple as a healthy snack to get me through the afternoon, but eating a whole apple is really too much for me given my busy schedule. I mean, who has time to eat a whole apple in today&...
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Jul. 11, 2012 / Posted by: Eric Hoffman / Categories: Blog, Food and Technology / Tags: Eric hoffman
Activist opposition to the proposed plan to release genetically engineered mosquitoes in the Florida Keys is starting to heat up -- and the media is increasingly taking notice. Last month, I sent an email encouraging Friends of the Earth activist...
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May. 16, 2012 / Posted by: Eric Hoffman, Stuart Newman, Ph.D. / Categories: Blog, Food and Technology / Tags: Eric hoffman
Synthetic biology is the newest purported cure-all technology for remedying our social, environmental, and public health ills. As many prominent synthetic biologists proclaimed in 2007, the world “face[s] daunting problems of climate change,...
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May. 11, 2012 / Posted by: Eric Hoffman / Categories: Blog, Food and Technology / Tags: Eric hoffman
Last weekend the Keynoter newspaper in the Florida Keys reported that plans to release genetically engineered mosquitoes in Key West “remain on indefinite hold.” But Oxitec has submitted an application to the FDA for approval of its mo...
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Apr. 27, 2012 / Posted by: Eric Hoffman / Categories: Blog, Food and Technology / Tags: Eric hoffman
Yesterday morning the White House released its National Bioeconomy Blueprint which “outlines steps that agencies will take to drive the bioeconomy—economic activity powered by research and innovation in the biosciences—and detail...
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Mar. 21, 2012 / Posted by: Eric Hoffman / Categories: Blog, Food and Technology / Tags: Eric hoffman
On March 15th, the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District hosted a town hall meeting to discuss the proposed release of genetically engineered mosquitoes in Key West. We organized our Friends of the Earth activists in the Keys to help ensure tough...
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Mar. 13, 2012 / Posted by: Eric Hoffman / Categories: Blog, Food and Technology, Publications / Tags: Eric hoffman
Friends of the Earth is thrilled to release the Principles for the Oversight of Synthetic Biology, the first global declaration from civil society to outline principles that must be adopted to protect public health and our environment from the ris...
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Feb. 23, 2012 / Posted by: Eric Hoffman / Categories: Blog, Food and Technology / Tags: Eric hoffman
Most people are shocked to learn that 20 percent of the human genome has been patented by corporations and scientists, granting companies ownership and sole access to these fundamental building blocks of life. Patents on genes limit the ability of...
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