Latest Resources
16 February 2011
African Millet Under Threat
The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) has focused several recent reports on new international commercial interest and patent claims on the African native crop sorghum. This includes the issues raised by the proposed widespread use of sorghum for the production of agrofuels. This report extends ACB’s examination of new international commercial interest in African native […]
16 February 2011
Response to the Environment Green Paper 2010
The ACB has submitted comments on the Department of Environmental Affairs’ National Climate Change Response Green Paper. Read here.
4 February 2011
Sorghum and the Antioxidant Craze: What Benefit for Africa’s Farmers?
A highly successful health food company in the United States, Silver Plate Inc, is seeking to cash in on the health benefits of sorghum. More particularly, it has begun to commercialize foods rich in sorghum anthocyanins, natural “antioxidant” chemicals found in some strongly coloured plant foods that are believed to have heart and other health […]
8 December 2010
Competition Commission rejects Pioneer Hi Bred seed takeover
Media Advisory from the African Centre for Biosafety Johannesburg, 8th December 2010. The African Centre for Biosafety applauds the decision of the Competition Commission not to approve the take-over of Pannar Seed, South Africa’s largest seed company, by the multinational corporation and seed giant, Pioneer Hi-Bred, a subsidiary of the DuPont chemical company. The ACB […]
3 December 2010
Deep concern: Patel’S New Growth Path (NGP) supports Green Revolution for smallholder farme...
Dear friends and colleagues, The ACB is deeply disturbed and disappointed that Minister Patel’s NGP has not embraced new thinking on agriculture policy which requires breaking from a wholly inequitable and ecologically unsustainable chemical-dependent system. The NGP lacks vision as it has missed an important moment to move South Africa towards systems that reconnect food […]
10 November 2010
Opposition to Pioneer Hi Bred’s merger with Pannar, submitted to Competitions Commission
As a stakeholder, the ACB was requested by the Competition Commission to make written comments on the proposed merger between Pioneer Hi Bred and Pannar, which we submitted to the Commission on the 21st of October, 2010. In this submission, we raise the following further pertinent issues: We provide in several annexes, the seeds under […]
15 October 2010
Watchdog condemns moves to include maize in biofuels strategy
The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) is deeply concerned about the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), Tina Joemat-Petersson’s statements on 8th of October 2010 that South Africa’s biofuels strategy should be revised to include maize. The Minister’s stance has been influenced by the huge surplus of conventional and GM maize produced by South […]
8 September 2010
The dirty politics of the global grain trade – GM maize farmers face ruin in SA
Recently, the South African press reported on the possible bankruptcy faced by maize farmers. The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) has today released a new report titled “The dirty politics of the global grain trade – GM maize farmers face ruin in SA” which provides an analysis of why South Africa’s record 13 million ton […]
18 June 2010
The Sorghum Gene Grab
A 16-page booklet by Edward Hammond. Read here. View the press release here.
17 April 2010
An Open Letter to Oxfam America
Sent from the following concerned groups: African Center on Biodiversity, South Africa (Mariam Mayet, Executive Director) Bharatiya Krishak Samaj/Indian Farmers Association, India (Krishan Bir Chaudhary, President) Center for Food Safety, U.S. (Debi Barker, International Director) CNOP (Coordination Nationale des organizations Paysannes/ National Coordination of Peasant Organizations), Mali (Ibrahima Coulibaly, President) Grassroots International, US (Nikhil Aziz, […]