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Synthetic Biology in the CBD-COP12

Michelle Pazmino October 15, 2014 0 Comments
by Michelle Pazmiño // The “new and emerging issue” of Synthetic Biology is said to be misunderstood by many stakeholders of the Convention on Biological Diversity. It is defined by the Convention as: “the use of computer-assisted, biological engineering to design and construct new synthetic biological parts, devices and systems that do not exist in nature and the redesign of existing...

Lost and Wasteful

khristian October 15, 2014 0 Comments
by Khristian Mendez // I spent most of the day yesterday with the Civil Society working group of Food Losses and Waste. We left the building at 11pm, carrying behind us the dread of a horrible round of negotiations. We lost a few battles, in favor of wasteful systems. Food Losses and Waste is one of those topics that sounds pretty: all we have to do is waste less food, right? That was my initial...

Let us walk out of the hunger map

khristian October 14, 2014 2 Comments
by khristian mendez // A world free from hunger and malnutrition. That is what we are here to imagine. Yesterday, the 41st Session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS41) began. We heard introductions by Gerda Verbug, the Director-General of FAO José Graziano da Silva, and the heads of other Rome-based agencies. The State of Food Insecurity 2014, a report usually presented at this...

Nothing about us, without us / The 5th Annual CSO Forum

khristian October 11, 2014 2 Comments
by Clara Mareschal & Khristian Méndez // We are at work. Civil Society Organizations from around the world are gathered once more at the FAO Headquarters in Rome, Italy, to prepare in advance their coordinated visions on the political architecture needed to guarantee food security and nutrition for all. This is the 5th Annual Civil Society Forum of the International Civil Society Mechanism...

Youth intervention on Synthetic Biology. CBD-COP12

Michelle Pazmino October 8, 2014 0 Comments
by Michelle Pazmiño // The following intervention was prepared by Kabir Arora (India) and Michelle Pazmiño (Ecuador) on the subject item number 24 of the Draft Decisions text for the CBD-COP12:   GYBN Intervention on Synthetic Biology Pyeongchang, South Korea, October 8th 2014   Madam Chair, thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to share our position in regard to this...