APPENDIX
CIVIL SOCIETY GROUPS WHICH HAVE CALLED FOR
A MORATORIUM ON NANOTECHNOLOGY'S USE IN FOOD AND AGRICULTURE
Growing numbers of civil society groups have
called for a moratorium on the commercial release of food, food
packaging, food contact materials and agrochemicals that contain
manufactured nanomaterials until nanotechnology-specific regulation
is introduced to protect the public, workers and the environment
from their risks. Some of these groups are also insisting that
the public be involved in decision making. Groups calling for
a moratorium include: Corporate Watch (UK); the ETC Group; Friends
of the Earth (Australia, Europe and the United States); GeneEthics
(Australia); Greenpeace International; International Centre for
Technology Assessment (US); International Federation of Journalists;
the Loka Institute; Practical Action; and The Soil Association
UK. The International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant,
Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations, representing
12 million workers from 120 countries, has also called for a moratorium.
The Nyéléni Forum for Food Sovereignty
was a civil society meeting of peasants, family farmers, fisher
people, nomads, indigenous and forest peoples, rural and migrant
workers, consumers and environmentalists from across the world.
Delegates were concerned that the expansion of nanotechnology
into agriculture will present new threats to the health and environment
of peasant and fishing communities and further erode food sovereignty.
The forum also resolved to work towards an immediate moratorium
on nanotechnology (Nyéléni 2007—Forum for
Food Sovereignty 2007).
The organic sector is also beginning to move
to exclude nanomaterials from organic food and agriculture. The
United Kingdom's largest organic certification body announced
in late 2007 that it will ban nanomaterials from all products
which it certifies. All organic foods, health products, sunscreens
and cosmetics that the Soil Association certifies will now be
guaranteed to be free from manufactured nanomaterial additives
(British Soil Association 2008). The Biological Farmers of Australia,
Australia's largest organic representative body, have also moved
to ban nanomaterials from products it certifies.
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