Latest Resources
21 July 2025
First of its kind, South African pesticide compendium documents widespread and worrying human and...
Within the South African context of regulatory failure, antiquated legislation, and co-optation by industry, a considerable number of agrotoxins classified as highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) – many of which are banned in regions such as the European Union (EU) – as well as other noxious chemicals, have become ubiquitous in our environment, our food and […]
21 July 2025
South African Compendium on pesticides is a comprehensive database listing over 100 papers produc...
A user-friendly resource for researchers, advocates, and civil society ACB is proud to release a collation of the past two decades of research done on pesticide use in South Africa, in the form of a searchable (and downloadable) database, below. For the first time, this extensive body of scientific evidence of the harm caused by […]
26 June 2025
ACB 2024 Annual Report: Our Year in Review
In 2024, the ACB collaborated with progressive civil society networks to advance an integrated agroecological response to the biodiversity, climate change, and sustainable food systems issues of our time, intensifying our efforts to conceptualise what just and sustainable food systems could look like in the future. We actively participated in several policy processes in South […]
17 June 2025
Cabinet ends corporate impunity: bans highly toxic pesticide Terbufos that killed primary school ...
Press release: South African People’s Tribunal on AgroToxins (SAPToA) 17 June 2025 On June 16th, South Africans remember the many young people who died for our democracy. We also remember the young people who died through neglect as a result of policies that preference profit over people’s lives, such as occurred in Naledi, Soweto when, […]
30 May 2025
Tracing ACB’s sustained resistance to GM wheat in South Africa
In this web post, we trace the push to introduce genetically modified (GM) wheat into South Africa and Africa, beginning with Monsanto’s 2004 application to import Roundup Ready wheat into SA, through to the current ongoing opposition led by the ACB. After Monsanto’s initial application was rejected, there was a long period before further applications […]
26 May 2025
Reimagining food sovereignty beyond capitalism
In March this year, the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) convened the three-day Shifting Financial Power forum in Nairobi, Kenya. Over 100 participants attended, including farmers, researchers, activists, policymakers, and civil society leaders from across Africa. Speaking at the event, Stephen Greenberg of the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) called on AFSA and […]
20 May 2025
SAPToA to brief Parliament on Agrotoxins
UPDATE: Watch a recording of the Parliamentary Briefing below. Business Day covered the briefing, highlighting Judge Navi Pillay’s call for the Department of Agriculture to “urgently start phasing out the use of toxic chemicals, beginning with HHPs. She said it was ‘very disappointing’ that SA was a party to international conventions but had not implemented […]
14 May 2025
ACB co-hosts capacity-building workshop on PVP and farmers’ rights in Uganda
Organised in partnership with the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) and the Association for Plant Breeding for the Benefit of Society (APBREBES), ACB is co-hosting and participating in a capacity-building workshop on Plant Variety Protection (PVP) and Farmers’ Rights, currently underway in Entebbe, Uganda. The workshop, bringing together civil society organisations, smallholder farmers, […]
24 March 2025
South African People’s Tribunal on AgroToxins exposes government’s failure to protect right to life
The South African People’s Tribunal on AgroToxins (SAPToA) put government on trial in the court of public opinion this past weekend for gross dereliction of its constitutional duties to protect the right to life. Farm workers and community members shared harrowing testimonies of how government has persistently failed to protect farm workers, their families, and […]
18 March 2025
Pesticide poisons on farms, poisons in the streets: People’s Tribunal puts government, agrarian f...
People’s Tribunal on AgroToxins to expose agriculture’s ugly secrets Press Release: South African People’s Tribunal on Agrotoxins For immediate release 18 March 2025 On Human Rights weekend, the South African People’s Tribunal on AgroToxins will put the government on trial in the court of public opinion for gross dereliction of its constitutional duties to protect […]