Latest Resources

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 […]

8 May 2020
Towards a democratised and recalibrated food system in South Africa
ACB’S Stephen Greenberg’s op-ed urging for a shift to localisation and agroecology The Covid-19 crisis has exposed the stark inequalities that persist in our society. Vast disparities in access to health care, food, shelter, personal safety, water, transport and communications have been laid bare. Aside from imposing a lockdown, the South African government has been […]

30 October 2018
Reflections on ITPGRFA, UPOV 1991 and South Africa
Recently the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) held national consultations on whether South Africa should accede to two international agreements related to seed: The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA, or the Treaty) and the International Convention on the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) 1991. The […]

16 July 2018
Marginalised worldviews hold the key to climate change adaption: Reflections from the Internation...
June 2018 In the climate change arena there are two main streams of work – mitigation, which are measures we need to take to stop emissions and halt climate change, and adaptation – the varied practices we are taking and can take to adapt to living with the new conditions that climate change brings. Adaptation […]

3 July 2017
Resistance is fertile! Farmers rise up against South Africa’s corporate seed laws
Calls to decolonise our seed system at Gauteng public hearings on the Plant Improvement and Plant Breeders’ Rights Bills. Are there alternative systems that put farmers at the centre, do not reduce genetic and agricultural diversity, and support agroecology, seed and food sovereignty and resilience? South African smallholder farmers, consumers, academics and civil society at […]