For more than thirty years, Pat Mooney has worked with civil society organisations on international trade and development issues related to agriculture

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

, biodiversity

Biodiversity

Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...

 and new technologies. Mooney has lived most of his life on the Canadian prairies. The author or co-author of several books on the politics of biotechnology and biodiversity, Pat Mooney received The Right Livelihood Award

Right Livelihood Award

The Right Livelihood Award, also referred to as the "Alternative Nobel Prize", is a prestigious international award to honour those "working on practical and exemplary solutions to the most urgent challenges facing the world today". The prize was established in 1980 by Jakob von Uexkull, and is...

 (the "Alternative Nobel Prize") in the Swedish Parliament in 1985. In 1998 Mooney received the Pearson Medal of Peace

Pearson Medal of Peace

The Pearson Medal of Peace is an award given out annually by the United Nations Association in Canada to recognize an individual Canadian's "contribution to international service". Nominations are made by any Canadian for any Canadian, excluding self-nominations. The award is named in honour of...

 from Canada’s Governor General. He also received the American "Giraffe Award" given to people "who stick their necks out". Pat Mooney has no university training, but is widely regarded as an authority on agricultural biodiversity and new technology issues.

Together with Cary Fowler and Hope Shand, Pat Mooney began working on the "seeds" issue in 1977. In 1984, the three co-founded RAFI (Rural Advancement Foundation International), whose name was changed to ETC group in 2001. ETC Group is a small international CSO

CSO

The initialism CSO may mean:*Any of a number of government statistics organizations:**Central Statistical Office **Czech Statistical Office * other offices:...

addressing the impact of new technologies on vulnerable communities. Mooney’s more recent work has focused on geoengineering

Geoengineering

The concept of Geoengineering refers to the deliberate large-scale engineering and manipulation of the planetary environment to combat or counteract anthropogenic changes in atmospheric chemistry The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded in 2007 that geoengineering options, such...

, nanotechnology

Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...

, synthetic biology

Synthetic biology

Synthetic biology is a new area of biological research that combines science and engineering. It encompasses a variety of different approaches, methodologies, and disciplines with a variety of definitions...

 and global governance of these technologies as well as corporate involvement in their development. ETC has offices in Canada, the United States, and Mexico; and works closely with CSO partners around the world.

Writings (selection)

• Seeds of the Earth: A Private or Public Resource?, Food First
  Food First
  Food First, also known as the Institute for Food and Development Policy, is a nonprofit organization based in Oakland, California, USA. Founded in 1975 by Frances Moore Lappé and Joseph Collins, it describes itself as a "people's think tank and education-for-action center".Its mission is “to...
  
   Books,1983,
• Shattering: Food, Politics, and the Loss of Genetic Diversity, University of Arizona Press, 1990, ISBN 0816511810

External links

• Website of Action Group ETC
• Pearson Medal of Peace - Pat Roy Mooney
• Pat Mooney on the Dangers of Geoengineering to Combat Climate Change - video report by Democracy Now!
  Democracy Now!
  Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...