Latest Resources
19 October 2020
We are nature! Human rights, environmental law, and the illusion of separation
Por favor, haga clic aquí para el español Passer à la version française Clique aqui para a versão portuguesa Food connects us with nature. There is no other place where our intrinsic relationship with the living world is as clear. When we eat, our body transforms nature into people. Moreover, the production of nutritious food […]
5 October 2020
Genome editing — The next GM techno fix doomed to fail
Regulatory issues and threats for Africa Veuillez cliquer ici pour le français Clique aqui para a versão portuguesa Por favor, haga clic aquí para el español Genome editing risks aggravating the problems of industrial agriculture, prolonging a model that threatens both human health and the environment, and further opens up African food systems to hegemonic […]
22 July 2020
Global Network for the Right to Food and Nutrition Report
Coming on the heels of the publication of the UN’s State of Food Security and Nutrition (SOFI) report presenting the global hunger and food insecurity figures, the Global Network for the Right to Food and Nutrition (GNRtFN) releases its 2020 State of the Right to Food and Nutrition Report, which the ACB supports. Here is […]
21 July 2020
Reflections midway through 2020: The need for solidarity and global rules for rooted change
ACB’s Executive Director Mariam Mayet looks back at the first half of the year We are mired in a world shattering pandemic of unprecedented magnitude and virulence. The architecture of global economic, environmental, human rights and political governance institutions and rules established in the 20th century are in the process of atrophying. The crisis is […]
9 July 2020
COVID-19: Food distribution and health support to informal settlements
Click here to read about the Ivory Park #COVID-19 Campaign relief initiative The Ubuntu Project COVID-19 SA lockdown regulations put strain on the livelihoods of vulnerable communities, and loss of income meant many people were unable to buy food. In the early stage of level 5 lockdown, families and small-scale farmers were cut off from […]
30 June 2020
Civil society statement on the South African Supplementary Budget
Implications for food security and land reform within a context of multiple crises See below for a link to the recording of an online media briefing. The Minister of Finance has announced an austerity budget at a time when the fissures of unresolved historical inequality, poverty and suffering are made so much sharper. The lives […]
5 June 2020
Commentary submitted to FAO discussion on the AFCFTA as it relates to food and agriculture
On 2 June, the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) submitted commentary on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AFCFTA) as it relates to food and agriculture, to a discussion hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO). Our concerns centred around three areas: the kind of food systems that in its […]
2 June 2020
Trends in extraction of biodiversity and genetic resources in east and southern Africa
Human health and wellbeing at great risk unless biodiversity and genetic resources extraction in Africa is halted “We need more genetic diversity, not less, and we need to vigorously defend genetic diversity as a common good, not something that can be extracted and privately profited from.” The ACB has collaborated with the Regional Network for […]
29 May 2020
Profiteering from health and ecological crisis in Africa: The Target Malaria project and new risk...
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 […]
28 May 2020
GM Fungi to kill Mosquitoes: Illegal experiments in Burkina Faso?
(Cliquez ici pour le français) Conducted silently and out of the public eye, a three-year experiment involving a new and potentially unsafe and risky genetically modified (GM) fungus to kill mosquitoes was performed in the village of Soumousso in Burkina Faso in 2019. When the study was published in a US scientific journal in May […]