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 […]
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 […]
27 October 2010
Biosafety Protocol: Ten years on and lagging far behind
Mariam Mayet attended COP MOP 5 in Nagoya Japan. Indeed, she has been following the Biosafety Protocol discussions since 1999. In this brief, she argues that the Biosafety Protocol lags far behind the biosafety challenges faced by developing countries such as South Africa. She also expresses deep disappointment with the loss of a international civil […]
21 July 2010
Who is Biosafety South Africa
In this briefing, we present an overview of a new organisation called Biosafety South Africa. Biosafety South Africa was launched early this year, receives funding from the South African government through the Department of Science and Technology. Biosafety South Africa has no legislative mandate to influence GMO decision-making but appears set to carve its niche […]
12 April 2010
GM Sugarcane: A long way from commercialisation?
Despite the best part of a decade of research and field trials, genetically modified sugar cane in South Africa remains a long way from commercial cultivation. Numerous research projects are currently underway at a number of publicly and privately funded research bodies, most of which are concentrating on increased sucrose and biomass content. Late last […]
12 March 2010
African Sorghum for agrofuels: the race is on
Author: Edward Hammond About the briefing: The interlocking problems of climate change, emissions from fossil fuels, and limited oil reserves have stimulated interest worldwide in the use of plant crops to produce fuel. Agrofuels are not a new idea. Brazil, for instance, has used them on a large scale for many years. The potential scale […]
10 August 2009
Critical overview of South Africa’s Bioprospecting laws
In this booklet, we provide an overview of the core provisions of the legislative framework governing bioprospecting, access and benefit sharing in South Africa. In particular, we highlight the lack of opportunity for public participation by civil society in the bioprospecting permitting process, problems with accessing information, issues relating to the restricted appeal process, and […]
21 May 2009
South African GMO Biohazard Maps
GMO trials in South Africa in 2007: Who is doing what and where? Questions around GMO field trials in South Africa continue to be asked, “Where exactly are they happening, when will there be adequate environmental risk assessment and post-release monitoring, what are the effects on neighbours of GMO field trials and what are the […]
15 May 2009
SNAPSHOT: South Africa facing a tsunami of risky GMOs
The African Centre for Biosafety has closely monitored GMO approvals in South Africa for several years. Several far-reaching changes are currently taking place. A wave of new GMOs are expected to flood the South African market during 2009, as the backlog of commodity import permits that have been stalled since 2005, are about to be […]
6 March 2009
Case Study: South Africa’s Traceability and Segregation systems for GM Grains
During 13-17 March 2006, the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol Biosafety (‘Biosafety Protocol’) will try, after several previous unsuccessful attempts, to craft minimum standards for a global segregation, traceability and accountability system to apply to the cross border movement of bulk shipments of genetically modified (GM) grain. The mechanisms of such a system will depend […]