Latest Resources

26 July 2007

Monsanto’s “Seed of Hope Campaign” in South Africa: A Briefing document, Januar...

Monsanto has conceived of an ingenious smallholders’ programme known as the ‘Seeds of Hope Campaign’, which targets the ‘bottom of the pyramid’-very low-income consumers who have substantial purchasing power as a group. Closed markets in Europe, worldwide consumer rejection, heated international debates about the risks of GMOs, and the intransigence of Africa, sans, South Africa, […]

20 June 2007

Regulation of GMOs in South Africa: details & short comings

The ACB has been motivated to write this paper by the coming into effect on the 17th April 2007, of the Genetically Modified Organisms Amendment Act (No. 23 of 2006). (ii) This amends the Genetically Modified Organisms Act No. 15 of 1997 (‘GMO Act’), 10 years after it became part of the body of post-apartheid […]

27 May 2007

Trojan Horse for GMOs

After more than 10 years of genetically modified (GM) crop plants being grown in the world, only South Africa out of 53 countries on the African continent have commercial plantings of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Nine countries: Burkina Faso; Egypt; Kenya; Morocco; Senegal; South Africa; Tanzania; Zambia; and Zimbabwe have reported field trials of GMOs, […]

11 February 2007

Malawi – GMO Legislation

The government of Malawi published its biosafety draft regulations in The Malawi Gazette Supplement on 13 September 2002 (“biosafety law”), at the height of the GM food aid controversy when several countries in Southern Africa imposed restrictions on the acceptance of genetically modified food aid from the United States. Malawi accepted the GM food aid, […]

3 February 2007

Africa’s Sorghum Saved: Applause for Second GM Sorghum Rejection

The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) hails the decision taken by the Executive Council (EC)-South Africa’s GM regulatory body on the 30 January 2007 to turn down an application by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s (CSIR) to conduct experiments with genetically modified (GM) sorghum in a level three containment facility. This decision was […]

1 February 2007

Monsanto’s Seed of Hope Campaign

The African Centre for Biosafety offers this briefing paper to you, titled “Monsanto’s Seed of Hope Campaign in South Africa.” In the briefing, we offer information about Monsanto’s Seed of Hope Campaign in the Eastern Cape-the poorest of South Africa’s nine provinces, where Monsanto’s project was subsidised with huge chunks of public funds, which enabled […]

10 January 2007

Tainting Africa’s Heritage

Wambugu, Gates Foundation and Du Pont’s GM Sorghum Project, Jan 2007 Read here.

10 November 2006

Turning Food into Fuel

GM Drought Tolerant Soybean and its use in the Production of Biodiesel Read the briefing here.

4 November 2006

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 […]

14 October 2006

South Africa’s Wine Industry Threatened By GM Grapevine Trials

Issued by the African Centre for Biosafety and Earthlife Africa The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) and Earthlife Africa Ethekwini (ELA), are calling on the South African government to reject an application by the Institute for Wine Biotechnology (IWB) based at the University of Stellenbosch, to conduct open- air field trials in South Africa, involving […]