Latest Resources

Industry employing bullying tactics to scupper GM food labelling in South Africa

GM-Labeling-zebraThe Biotech industry continues to stall the implementation of a GMO labelling regime, claiming that only a “lunatic fringe” or a “European funded lobby” want it, despite government’s clear intentions in the Consumer Protection Act to grant the consumer’s right to know and to choose. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has re-opened the […]

Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa: Media briefing – AFSA appeals to ARIPO, AU and UNE...

The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), a Pan African platform comprising civil society networks and farmer organisations working towards food sovereignty in Africa, has today lodged an urgent appeal to the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO), African Union and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) to urgently revise the draft ARIPO […]

AFSA strongly condemns sleight of hand moves by ARIPO to join UPOV 1991, bypass national laws and...

The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) [1] strongly condemns the move by the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) to join UPOV 1991, which will effectively outlaw the centuries-old African farmers’ practice of freely using, exchanging and selling seeds/propagating material. These practices underpin 90% of the agricultural system within the ARIPO region. [2] […]

Monsanto’s failed SA GM Maize pushed into rest of Africa

Today the African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) released a new report ‘Africa bullied to grow defective Bt Maize: the failure of Monsanto’s MON810 maize in South Africa’ [i], showing how Monsanto’s GM maize, which utterly failed in SA, is now being foisted on the rest of the continent, through ‘sleight of hand’. Independent scientists have […]

Maíz transgénico de Sudáfrica: imposición en México y Zimbawe

BOLETÍN DE PRENSA Grupo ETC, Centro Africano para la Bioseguridad, FoodMattersZimbabwe y CTDT El Centro Africano para la Bioseguridad (ACB, African Center for Biosafety) manifiesta su alarma ante el hecho de que las autoridades sudafricanas dieron luz verde a la exportación de más de 25 mil toneladas de maíz transgénico hacia Zimbawe. Es la primera […]

South Africa exports unapproved. GM maize to Zimbabwe, continues to export to Mexico, contaminati...

The ACB is deeply concerned by the news that the South African GMO authorities have permitted over 25,000 tons of GM maize to be exported to Zimbabwe. This is the first time that South African GM maize grains have been commercially exported to our neighbor north of the Limpopo, and adds to a growing list […]

GM Industry Called to Account: ISAAA’s report mischievous and erroneous

The Africa Centre for Biosafety (ACB) has dismissed the findings of the biotechnology industry’s flagship annual report, published by the GM industry funded ‘NGO’, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), as mischievous and erroneous. According to the report, South Africa’s GM crop area increased by a record 26% or 600,000 hectares […]

ARIPO’s PVP law undermines Farmers’ Rights & Food Security in Africa

The African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) has proposed a draft regional harmonized policy and legal framework on Plant Variety Protection (PVP), based on the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) Convention of 1991. The draft legal framework, if adopted, will have significant adverse consequences for small-scale farmers that dominate […]

African Civil Society calls on the African Union to ban genetically modified crops

An urgent appeal has been made to the African Union (AU) to discuss a ban on the cultivation, import and export of genetically modified (GM) crops in Africa at the next AU summit, to be held in January 2013. An African Civil Society Statement, signed by over 400 African organisations representing small-scale farmers, faith-based organisations, […]

The Gates Foundation and Cargill push Soya onto Africa

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is to grant US$8 million to develop a soya value chain in Africa, in partnership with US non-profit organisation TechnoServe and agricultural commodity trading giant Cargill. The announcement was made at the Soy Innovation Africa Conference held in Cape Town 26th and 27th August 2010. The project is meant […]