Latest Resources
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 […]
20 April 2020
COVID-19: Access to medicine & implications for Africa
ACB brings you a new discussion paper Passer à la version française Clique aqui para a versão portuguesa Dear Friends and Colleagues, Expeditious and affordable access to medicines and other healthcare items will be critical to reducing the toll of COVID-19 in Africa. But if nothing is done to compel corporations to make their patents […]
5 March 2020
GM Potato Push in East Africa
Andean and African farmers condemn digital sequence information of potatoes from centres of origin – opens doors for biopiracy (Passer à la version française) (Por favor, haga clic aquí para el español) Cusco, Peru; Johannesburg, South Africa and Kigali, Rwanda – 05 March, 2020 Billionaire potato overlords on both sides of the North Atlantic want […]
4 March 2020
More toxic GM crops & food for SA; Ineffective GM drought tolerant maize pushed on Kenya and...
In this first alert of the decade, African Centre of Biodiversity research and advocacy officers Linzi Lewis and Sabrina Masinjila provide an update on the status of GM activities, in South Africa and in relation to the region. Summary of current key trends The South African government has authorised field trials of 2,4-D resistant soybean. […]
3 February 2020
The GM potato push in Rwanda: With regulatory hurdles in Uganda, is this the industry’s fall back?
Sauter au français To enable the introduction of the first GM crop to be grown in Rwanda – a GM potato variety named ‘Victoria’ – the Rwandan government is fast-tracking the development of a biosafety policy and legal framework. Civil society is deeply concerned about the potential risks of this GM potato variety, which has […]
10 December 2019
More poisoning of South Africa’s staple food given the go-ahead: 2,4-D GM maize varieties approved
The African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) is extremely alarmed to learn that three genetically modified maize varieties developed by Corteva (new name of the Dow-DuPont merged entity) to withstand the application of the dangerous 2,4-D herbicide have been approved for general release by the Executive Council: GMO Act. This poses a grave threat to the […]
18 October 2019
Prudence versus Pressure at the Seed Treaty
Will the critical need to address digital sequence information break the Seed Treaty’s effort to fix its benefit-sharing system? It probably should. (Veuillez cliquer ici pour le français) (Por favor, haga clic aquí para el español) In November 2019, the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (“Seed Treaty”) will meet in […]
8 October 2019
Crunch Time for the Seed Treaty
A review of some outstanding issues in the negotiation Will the effort to fix ITPGRFA’s broken benefit sharing system measure up to expectations? (Veuillez cliquer ici pour le français) (Por favor, haga clic aquí para el español) This paper reviews the key outstanding issues that are expected to be discussed by the ITPGRFA Governing Body, […]
4 October 2019
Resounding no to Monsanto’s ‘bogus’ GM drought tolerant maize
Resounding no to Monsanto’s ‘bogus’ GM drought tolerant maize: South Africa’s Minister, Appeal Board and Biosafety Authority Reject Monsanto’s GM seeds Johannesburg, South Africa, 4 October 2019 After more than 10 years of battling Monsanto’s ‘bogus’ drought tolerant maize project, the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) welcomes the decision by the Minister of Agriculture, Ms. […]
25 September 2019
AFRICANS REFUSE TO BE CHEMICAL DUMPING GROUND
Civil society organisations and citizens across Africa are calling upon their governments to issue an immediate ban on all use of glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicides (GBHs). Launched by the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) and the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), the #BanGlyphosateAfrica campaign has been endorsed by African organisations representing millions of […]