Nanotechnology in food and agriculture
With Georgia Miller
Monday 5 May 2008
Hosted
by Reclaim the Food Chain, the sustainable food campaign of
Friends of the Earth Adelaide and The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre, UniSA
Audio transcript will be available shortly
Georgia Miller's powerpoint presentation
Audio transcript (mp3 format 22.7MB)
Georgia Miller is co-author of the report ‘Out of the Laboratory and on to
our Plates: Nanotechnology in Food and Agriculture’
Get ready for the new high-tech intervention in our food system - after
genetic engineering comes nanotechnology. Nanotechnology, the "science of
the small", involves manipulating materials, systems and even living
organisms at the scale of atoms and molecules. The co-author of the Report,
Georgia Miller, argues that nanotechnology introduces not only serious new
risks for human health and the environment, but also threatens to further
concentrate corporate control of agriculture and food production. An absence
of public debate, governmental inquiry and legislative regulation has
enabled nanotechnology to advance from the laboratory and enter the global
food chain.
Georgia Miller will provide a brief introduction to nanotechnology. She will
then present how nanotechnology is being used in our current food production
and what impacts and risks to health, society and environment this poses.
She will conclude by throwing open the challenge to the consumer and public.
What can be done? Should we say no to nano-foods? Can we say no to nano-foods?
Biography: Georgia has been the national coordinator of the Friends
of the Earth Australia Nanotechnology Project since 2005. In late 2006
Georgia was invited to address the International Council on Nanotechnology
on public interest concerns regarding nanotechnology. In late 2007 Georgia
attended the OECD Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials as an NGO
representative. Georgia is particularly interested in supporting greater
public involvement in science policy development and in making technology
more responsive to social needs. Georgia has an Honours degree in
Environmental Science (Terrestrial Ecology).
The full report ‘Out of the Laboratory and on to our Plates: Nanotechnology
in Food and Agriculture’ and more information can be accessed here:
http://www.nano.foe.org.au/
While the views presented by speakers within the Hawke Centre public
program are their own and are not necessarily those of either the University
of South Australia or The Hawke Centre, they are presented in the interest
of open debate and discussion in the community and reflect our themes of:
strengthening our democracy – valuing our cultural diversity – and building
our future.