Latest GM & Biosafety Resources

Will stringent regulation safeguard Africa’s food systems? Across Africa, powerful corporate, donor, and government interests are driving a rapid push to deregulate genome editing in agriculture. Countries including Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Malawi, Ethiopia, and Burkina Faso have adopted product-based guidelines that exempt many genome-edited crops from GMO regulation if no foreign DNA is present in […]

UPDATE: After nine years of arduous litigation by the ACB, a full bench of the Supreme Court of Appeal on 22 October 2024 set aside several layers of decision-making regarding the approval of the application by Monsanto, now Bayer, for commercial release of its drought-tolerant genetically modified maize, MON87460. 28 June 2023 UPDATE: In 2023, […]

Over the past few years, the ACB has produced and shared several briefing papers concerning new genetic engineering technologies for food and agriculture. Building on this work, and in light of the major deregulation push globally concerning genome editing, including in several countries in Africa, we have produced two updated factsheets on this dangerous distraction […]

This legacy series provides an opportunity to reflect on and celebrate the past two decades of ACB’s advocacy and activism, with a particular focus on resisting the introduction of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) into our agricultural and food systems in Africa.  Our first podcast in the series is hosted by ACB Research and Advocacy Officer […]

International and national biosafety regulations are urgently needed, including the right to say no By Sabrina Masinjila, African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) research and advocacy officer Masinjila can be seen making a statement on behalf of the Convention of Biological Diversity Alliance (CBDA), calling for Parties to support the ongoing work of the Multidisciplinary Ad […]

On Tuesday and Wednesday this week, 7-8 February, the ACB’s case was heard in the High Court. Five years earlier, the ACB lodged the application for this review, to overturn the decisions of the South African Executive Council (EC): Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) Act, the GMO Appeal Board, and the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and […]

In 2017, the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) lodged legal proceedings with the High Court of South Africa to review and overturn the decisions of the South African Executive Council: GMO Act (EC), the GMO Appeal Board, and the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, approving Monsanto/Bayer’s genetically modified (GM) drought-tolerant (DT) maize variety MON […]

A coalition of non-governmental organisations, farmer groups and research experts from various African countries call on the Nigerian government to revoke the permits granted by Nigeria’s National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) to the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR), Zaria, for the commercial release of genetically modified (Bt) Cowpea (PBR-Cowpea). This call was made yesterday in […]

Agrarian extractivism continues unabated on the African continent In this alert, African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) research and advocacy officers, Sabrina Masinjila and Rutendo Zendah, give insights into the development of a double stacked drought tolerant variety MON 87460 x MON 810, under the Gate’s funded project, Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA), now known […]

(Por favor clique aqui para Português) (Veuillez cliquer ici pour le français) African food sovereignty movement’s victory over, and continued resistance against, the biotech industry Despite two decades of biotech industry-backed lobbying, funding, relentless propaganda and backroom deals, supported by neo-colonial philanthropy-capitalists, such as Bill Gates; this machinery has very little to show. Only 2.9 […]

An unproven genetically modified (GM) RNAi cassava variety is yet another staple food crop, after maize and banana, on the biotech industry’s agenda for commercial cultivation in Kenya. The brazen lack of safety tests contained in the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation’s (KARLO’s) application for cultivation, and disregard for adherence to biosafety best practise […]

Cliquez ici pour le français The ACB shares this research paper with you, of the wave of ‘Trojan horse’ second-generation genetic engineering strategies targeted at, inter alia, malaria in Africa, at a time when the COVID-19 crisis is fracturing the myth that global health expertise is the domain of North America and Europe. Global health […]