Latest GM & Biosafety Resources

In this web post, we trace the push to introduce genetically modified (GM) wheat into South Africa and Africa, beginning with Monsanto’s 2004 application to import Roundup Ready wheat into SA, through to the current ongoing opposition led by the ACB. After Monsanto’s initial application was rejected, there was a long period before further applications […]

In December, the ACB, alongside a coalition of organisations, academics, and unions, submitted a letter of demand to the Minister of Agriculture, Mr John Steenhuisen. This urgent appeal calls for the immediate ban of Terbufos — a highly hazardous pesticide implicated in the tragic deaths of six children in Naledi, Soweto, last year. To amplify […]

Minister Steenhuisen, when can we expect the Registrar to respond? Today marks a year since we called for a review of the registration of 2,4-D in South Africa, in a letter to the Registrar: Act No. 36 of 1947, Mr Jonathan Mudzunga. With no substantive response forthcoming, despite substantiation in a further submission, and persistent […]

Annulation de l’autorisation commerciale d’un maïs génétiquement modifié tolérant à la sécheresse Cliquez ici pour lire en anglais. Cliquez ici pour lire en espagnol. Johannesburg, le 22 octobre 2024 Après neuf ans de procédure judiciaire ardue menée par le Centre africain pour la biodiversité (ACB), un collège complet composé de cinq juges de la Cour […]

Gene Drives: privatising malaria control | Mariam Mayet Save our Seeds travelled the world speaking to some of the world’s leading thinkers, activists and academics on the impact of gene drives. They recognise ACB’s The financialisation of malaria in Africa: Burkina Faso, rogue capital & GM /gene drive mosquitoes (2022), as the most in-depth analysis of the […]

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 […]

It is incontestable that 2,4-D is extremely toxic for the environment and human health, as numerously raised and resisted by civil society for more than a decade. However, a succession of South African regulators over the years have failed to stop 2,4-D from entering our agricultural and food system, in a global context where many […]

In this first alert of the decade, African Centre of Biodiversity research and advocacy officers Linzi Lewis and Sabrina Masinjila provide an update on the status of GM activities, in South Africa and in relation to the region. Summary of current key trends The South African government has authorised field trials of 2,4-D resistant soybean. […]

6 September 2019 The African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) is extremely concerned about impending approvals by the South African government in regard to three new genetically modified (GM) maize varieties designed to withstand the extremely toxic herbicide, 2,4-D. 2,4-D is one of the active ingredients of the infamous war chemical Agent Orange. The ACB has […]

ACB warns that the South African government has received an application for the commodity clearance (import for food, feed and processing) of ‘triple-stacked variety of genetically modified (GM) soya – MON 87708 X MON 89788 X A5547-127 by Monsanto South Africa (Pty) Ltd in October 2017. This GM Soybean variety represent has been genetically engineered […]

In this alert, the ACB warns that the South African government received an application for the commodity clearance (import for food, feed and processing) of a ‘multi-stacked variety’ of genetically modified (GM) maize – MON87427 × MON89034 × MIR162 × MON87411, which represents the entry of the second generation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in […]

In this GMO Alert, the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) shares information that the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Senzeni Zokwana, has in February 2017, granted Syngenta SA a commodity permit to import genetically modified (GM) maize that is genetically engineered for enhanced ethanol production for the agrofuels industry. (The maize expresses an enzyme, […]