Latest Resources
3 March 2025
On-going assaults on our food system and peoples’ health
Legal loopholes to allow continued use of highly hazardous pesticides, GM crops On the 27th of February, the ACB submitted substantive objections to the South African government’s attempt to backtrack on its commitments to phase out highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs), including glufosinate ammonium (GLA), by way of spurious and potentially unlawful “derogation” regulations. The rise […]
30 October 2024
Artist Gallery: Helen Day
Helen (Wallace) Day is a South African-based muralist and fine artist whose work can be found both locally and internationally. She was commissioned for several paintings that featured on the covers of various ACB publications. Educated at the National School of the Arts, her style of artwork is impressionistic, always evident of bold colourful brushstrokes […]
23 October 2024
Artist Gallery: Vanessa Black
Drawing, painting and photography have been life-long interests of Vanessa Black; as a way to make sense of the world but also to share delight in its beauty. Black added depth to the ACB’s advocacy through her extensive artwork on an earlier iteration of our website, as well as illustrating the covers of several publications. […]
22 October 2024
Resistance against “bogus” drought tolerant (DT) maize in South Africa: a snapshot of two decades...
UPDATE: After nine years of arduous litigation by the ACB, a full bench of the Supreme Court of Appeal on 22 October 2024 set aside several layers of decision-making regarding the approval of the application by Monsanto, now Bayer, for commercial release of its drought-tolerant genetically modified maize, MON87460. 28 June 2023 UPDATE: In 2023, […]
26 January 2023
Zimbabwean smallholder farmers show us the way towards alternative food systems
– by Dr Stephen Greenberg These reflections come from attending a farmer exchange in October 2022, hosted by the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) and Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) Zimbabwe, in collaboration with Towards Sustainable Use of Resources Organisation (TSURO) and Community Technology Development Organisation (CTDO). The 35 participants, including farmers, non-government organisations […]
25 July 2022
The battle over regulation of new breeding techniques in South Africa
– A blog by ACB Director Mariam Mayet Snapshot In October 2021, the South African (SA) government determined that the regulatory and risk assessment framework that exists for genetically modified organisms (GMOs) will also apply to new breeding techniques (NBTs), which make up a host of new genetic engineering technologies. This decision appears to follow […]
21 July 2020
Reflections midway through 2020: The need for solidarity and global rules for rooted change
ACB’s Executive Director Mariam Mayet looks back at the first half of the year We are mired in a world shattering pandemic of unprecedented magnitude and virulence. The architecture of global economic, environmental, human rights and political governance institutions and rules established in the 20th century are in the process of atrophying. The crisis is […]
15 July 2020
Small scale farming organic African herbs and crops
Uncle Wiz is a shining example of a thriving small scale farming and food distribution business that not only farms without chemicals but also focuses on and promotes indigenous food crops. Owners Wisdom and Mpumi Edward live in south Johannesburg and farm on land in Vanderbijlpark. Not only do they grow many indigenous African crops […]
9 July 2020
COVID-19: Food distribution and health support to informal settlements
Click here to read about the Ivory Park #COVID-19 Campaign relief initiative The Ubuntu Project COVID-19 SA lockdown regulations put strain on the livelihoods of vulnerable communities, and loss of income meant many people were unable to buy food. In the early stage of level 5 lockdown, families and small-scale farmers were cut off from […]
8 May 2020
Towards a democratised and recalibrated food system in South Africa
ACB’S Stephen Greenberg’s op-ed urging for a shift to localisation and agroecology The Covid-19 crisis has exposed the stark inequalities that persist in our society. Vast disparities in access to health care, food, shelter, personal safety, water, transport and communications have been laid bare. Aside from imposing a lockdown, the South African government has been […]