Latest Resources
28 August 2006
GM Cassava fails in Africa
The Donald Danforth plant science centre (the ‘Danforth Centre’), who’s partners include Monsanto corporation, has been pursuing disease-resistant Cassava since 1999 for its projects in Kenya. Despite initially claiming a breakthrough, the group has subsequently conceded (on the 26th of May, 2006) that its GM virus resistant Cassava has now lost resistance to the African […]
27 June 2006
Groups in Latin America and Africa call for rejection of World Bank GEF biosafety projects
Two World Bank projects, with funding from the GEF (Global Environmental Facility), propose to introduce genetically modified crops such as maize, potatoes, cassava, rice and cotton into African and Latin American countries that are centres of origin or diversity for these and other major food crops. Civil society organisations warn that DNA contamination from genetically […]
4 June 2006
Article 18(2)(a): The Trojan Horse of the Biosafety Protocol
Read the article here. By Mariam Mayet African Centre for Biosafety July 2006 The “may contain” labels flood the feed sector. Even transboundary movements which could pass as GM-free under existing legislation for LMO-FFPs are labelled as “may contain”. Grain trade and important ports are leading in this clever move which actually ridicules the Protocol. […]
28 January 2006
Out of Africa: Mysteries of access and benefit sharing
In late 2005 the Edmunds Institute and the African Centre for Biosafety contacted famed bio-pirate hunter Jay McGowan to investigate incidences of access and benefit sharing in Africa. Despite many constraints on the research, McGowan found a plethora of incidents where transnational corporations had utilised African biodiversity without concluding benefit sharing agreements with the local […]
4 May 2005
BT-Maize MIR 604 / SYNGENTA
SUBMISSION OF OBJECTIONS BY THE AFRICAN CENTRE FOR BIOSAFETY (ACB) Objection To The Application By Syngenta For Commodity Clearance Of Syngenta Mir604 Maize To The National Department Of Agriculture, South Africa African Centre for Biosafety, 27 May 2005 Read here. OVERVIEW SUMMARY OF ISSUES RAISED IN OBJECTION The discussion below details our concerns against the […]
4 April 2005
BT Cotton
BT cotton in South Africa – the case of the Makhathini farmers – Apr 2005 By Elfrieda Pschorn Strauss, GRAIN. Read here. Global agriculture and genetically modified cotton in Africa. By Stephen Greenberg. Read here.
14 May 2004
BT-Maize 176 / Syngenta
Protest letter by the African Centre for Biosafety, the South African Freeze Alliance on Genetic Engineering, Biowatch, and the Safe Food Coalition Demand for a Ban on Imports of Bt176 and for a Public Enquiry into Safety of Food Derived from Genetically Modified Crops African Centre for Biosafety, the South African Freeze Alliance on Genetic […]
11 February 2004
Explanation And Comments On The Cameroon Biosafety Law Mariam Mayet, April 2004
The Cameroon Biosafety Law No 2003/006 titled “Law No 2003/006 of 21 April 2003 To Lay Down Safety Regulations Governing Biotechnology in Cameroon” (“Biosafety Law”) was signed by the President of Cameroon on the 21 April 2003, and passed by the Cameroon Parliament during November 2003. Cameroon is a Party to the Cartagena Protocol on […]
7 February 2004
GM Food aid: Africa denied choice once again?
Controversy over genetically modified (GM) food aid arose in 2000 in Latin America, and Asia, and exploded in 2002, when several southern African countries refused GM food aid during a food crisis. Now, in 2004 the controversy has erupted again after Sudan and Angola imposed restrictions over GM food aid. Food aid has been heavily […]
20 January 2004
Africa: Dumping ground for rejected GE wheat
On the 19th of January 2004 Monsanto announced it had approached the South African government with permission to import its genetically engineered (GE) wheat, known as Round-up Ready wheat, in an obvious pre-emptive attempt to create a much needed market for its GE wheat, because none exists anywhere in the world. This comes at a […]