Latest Resources

Biosafety Indaba eSwatini: Unclear motives following approval to cultivate Bt cotton, despite dis...

The news that the Swaziland Environmental Authority (SEA) had authorised the importation and commercial release of Bt cotton seeds came as a huge shock to the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB). It meant that ACB had to reconsider its earlier acceptance of an invitation by SEA to attend a National Biosafety Indaba on 22 May […]

GM Cotton push in Swaziland: Next target for failed Bt cotton

This paper examines the application of the Bt cotton field trials currently underway in Swaziland. This is situated within the broader wave of GM application and trials across the continent, along with the weakening of national biosafety regulations, as part of the GM push across Africa. This paper is based on research on the Swaziland […]

ACB’s objection to Monsanto’s commodity clearance application for Smartstax

On 20 April, Business Day carried a public notice of Monsanto’s application to the South African GMO registrar for permission to import Smartstax maize, arguably the world’s most controversial and risky commercially grown GMO. While the majority of commercially grown genetically engineered crops contain at most 3 foreign genes, Smartstax contains eight, 6 of which […]

Force-feeding South Africans: Monsanto’s Smartstax 8 gene GM maize coming to a store near you!

Monsanto has made an application to the South African GMO authorities for permission to import Smartstax maize, one of the most controversial and risky GMOs ever produced for commercial use. The ACB recently published a report featuring Smartstax titled ‘The stacked gene revolution: A biosafety nightmare’. We pointed out that while the majority of commercially […]

Swaziland – GMO Legislation

OVERVIEW We have been approached by civil society groups in Swaziland to provide comments on the Draft National Policy Document, “Creating an enabling environment for the safe use of biotechnology and its products in Swaziland” and the Biosafety Bill, 2005. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)/World Food Programme (WFP) crop and food supply […]

Contaminated US Rice Must Be Recalled From Africa

African Groups Condemn US Decision To Authorize Illegal GM Rice Sent To Africa Friends of the Earth Africa and the African Center for Biosafety are today urging African countries to monitor US rice imports and to recall all shipments contaminated with GM rice known as LibertyLink601 (LL601). This call follows the confirmation of the presence […]