Latest Resources
17 March 2015
Nuanced rhetoric and the path to poverty: AGRA, small-scale farmers, and seed and soil fertility ...
The report indicates a well-coordinated effort by selected states especially the US and in the EU, philanthropic institutions like AGRA, multilateral institutions like the World Bank, donors and multinational corporations (MNCs) including Yara, Monsanto and Pioneer to construct a Green Revolution that aims to produce a layer of commercial surplus producers. This is an explicit […]
6 October 2014
Running to Stand Still: Small-Scale Farmers and the Green Revolution in Malawi
According to ACB lead researcher, Dr Stephen Greenberg, “small-scale farmers are using shockingly high levels of synthetic fertilisers at great financial costs to themselves and the public purse. Rising soil infertility is a feature of farming systems reliant on synthetic fertiliser. We found that farmers are increasingly adopting hybrid maize seed, encouraged by government subsidies […]
15 September 2014
The political economy of Africa’s burgeoning chemical fertiliser rush
The African Centre for Biosafety has today released an in-depth report, The Political Economy of Africa’s burgeoning chemical fertiliser rush, which looks at the role of fertiliser in the Green Revolution push in Africa, some of the key present and future fertiliser trends on the continent and the major players involved in this. The value […]
20 May 2014
Below the belt, below the breadline – South Africa’s inequitable and GM contaminated ...
The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) has today brought into sharp focus the white bread industry in South Africa with the release of its new report “GM Contamination, Cartels and Collusion in South Africa’s Bread Industry.’ The report shows that the white bread tested contains high levels of Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) soya in the […]
8 October 2012
Glyphosate in SA: Risky pesticide at large and unregulated in our soil and water
The research shows that although glyphosate (a weed killer) is ubiquitous throughout South African agriculture, it poses many environmental risks and yet there is precious little research done to monitor and manage its environmental impacts. Read more here.
15 September 2012
Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA): laying the groundwork for the commercialisation...
We consider AGRA’s broad philosophy and structure, focusing on AGRA’s own views or those of its consultants, before turning to a more detailed consideration of its specific work in the Programme for Africa’s Seed Systems (PASS) and, in slightly less detail, its Soil Health Programme (SHP). These programmes are inseparable because seed and soil fertility […]
9 May 2011
Critique of SANBI’s Studies on Monsanto’s MON 810
During early in 2011, the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) published a report titled, Monitoring the Environmental Impacts of GM Maize in South Africa. The report was a culmination of a study by the Environmental Biosafety Cooperation Project (EBCP) aimed at developing a framework for monitoring of insect resistant maize, Mon810, belonging to Monsanto. […]
12 May 2010
Traceability, segregation and labelling of genetically modified products in South Africa: A Posit...
South Africa has promulgated national legislation, the Consumer Protection Act (CPA), which creates an opportunity for the mandatory labelling of certain foodstuffs containing or which are genetically-modified organisms (GMOs). The Act sets out a number of consumer rights that have relevance to the sale of products with genetically modified components. These include the right to […]
17 April 2010
Scottish Parliament Motion on GM entry refusal, Kenya, South Africa
*S3M-6119 Bill Wilson: Biodiversity Coalition Opposes GM Contamination. That the Parliament notes reports that 40,000 tons of genetically modified (GM) maize from South Africa have been refused entry to Kenya as a result of protests led by the Kenya Biodiversity Coalition. Further notes, with reference to motion S3M-05873 by Bill Wilson ‘Who Benefits from GM […]
7 February 2010
A profile of Monsanto in South Africa
Monsanto is a globally dominant company in the agrochemical, seed and agricultural biotechnology sector. It has been active in the agrochemicals market in South Africa since 1968, and now owns almost all traits used in the South African GM crop market. Thanks to the purchase of local seed companies, Sensako and Carnia, in the late […]