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The term "intellectual property" refers to a group of laws-such as patents, Plant Breeders' Rights, copyright, trademarks and trade secrets - that are intended to protect inventors and artists from losing control over their intellectual creations-their ideas. Intellectual property has become a powerful tool to enhance corporate monopoly and consolidate market power. Monopoly control over plants, animals and other life forms jeopardizes world food security, undermines conservation and use of biological diversity, and threatens to increase the economic insecurity of farming communities.

Any new technology monitored by ETC Group, aside from biotechnology and nanotechnology, can be viewed by following this link. This category will include, for example, informatics, neurosciences and robotics.

Synthetic biology brings together engineering and the life sciences in order to design and construct new biological parts, devices and systems that do not currently exist in the natural world or to tweak the designs of existing biological systems. Synthetic biologists, engaged in a kind of "extreme genetic engineering," hope to construct artificial living systems to perform specific tasks such as produce pharmaceutical compounds or energy.

Farmers' Rights, endorsed by FAO in 1989, recognizes that farmers and rural communities have contributed greatly- and continue to contribute- to the creation, conservation, exchange and enhancement of genetic resources, and that they should be recognized and strengthened in their work. The ETC Group believes that Farmers' Rights must be recognized at the international level, and that its definition should be expanded by the human rights community as part of the Right to Food.

Biological diversity refers to all living organisms, their genetic material and the ecosystems of which they are a part. It is usually described at three levels: genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity. Genetic diversity is the variation of genes between and within species. Genetic diversity within a species permits it to adapt to new pests and diseases, and to changes in environment, climate, and agricultural methods. Biological diversity is the cornerstone of sustainable agriculture and world food security.

The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). The ETC Group relates primarily to the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, and the negotiations for a multilateral system of conservation and exchange of genetic resources for food and agriculture, known as the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Aside from responsibility for the International Treaty, the FAO Commission oversees the FAO-CGIAR Trust Agreement and provides policy oversight for the germplasm collections included in that agreement.

Es una diversidad de técnicas que incluyen el uso y manipulación de organismos vivos para obtener productos comerciales. Esas técnicas incluyen cultivo de células, cultivo de tejidos, transferencia de embriones y tecnología del ADN recombinante (ingeniería genética). El trabajo del Grupo ETC al respecto se enfoca en los impactos sociales y económicos de las nuevas biotecnologías. No nos oponemos de manera fundamental a la ingeniería genética, pero tenemos profundas preocupaciones por la forma en que se está imponiendo en el mundo.

A variety of techniques that involve the use and manipulation of living organisms to make commercial products. These techniques include cell culture, tissue culture, embryo transfer, and recombinant DNA technology (genetic engineering). ETC Group focuses on the social and economic impacts of new biotechnologies. ETC Group is not fundamentally opposed to genetic engineering, but we have profound concerns about the way it is being foisted upon the world.