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
Georgia Miller's powerpoint presentation
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.
While the views presented by speakers within The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre public program are their own and are not necessarily those of either the University of South Australia, or The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial 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 Diversity - Building our Future. The Hawke Centre reserves the right to change their program at any time without notice.
