Latest Resources
5 March 2008
Hot potato in South Africa
GM potatoes in South Africa: a critical analysis, is an ACB publication written by Vanessa Black. Read here.
20 February 2008
ACB’s Submissions to the SA’s govt’s position on International Liability and Re...
Concerns with South Africa’s Biotechnology Strategy Detailed comments on draft operational text Preferred Options. Read here.
19 February 2008
The Geopolitics of Agrofuels
OPENING PANDORA’S BOX: GMOS, FUELISH PARADIGMS AND SOUTH AFRICA’s BIOFUELS STRATEGY. Read here.
14 February 2008
Displacing Africa’s Indigenous Food: Monsanto & AATF’s GM Cowpea Project
Nairobi based African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) and Monsanto are set to introduce genetically engineered cowpeas in the coming years into the fields and tables of Africa. It will use Nigeria and Burkina Faso as key entry points, with Ghana, Cameroon, Niger and Mali comprising the second tier of countries that will be targeted. The […]
13 February 2008
Hot Potato: GM Potatoes in South Africa – a critical analysis
This research is not home grown or ‘truly South African’. The ARC is part of an international consortium, which includes the Michigan State University (MSU), the International Potato Centre in Peru and gene giant, Syngenta. Syngenta has quietly been cornering the GM food potato market; lodging a stream of patents in the US and other […]
7 February 2008
GMO Field Trials – A briefing document
Questions around GMO field trials in South Africa continue to be asked. Where exactly are they happening, when will there be adequate environmental risk assessment and post-release monitoring, what are the effects on neighbours of GMO field trials and what are the cumulative affects of all the field trials that have happened in South Africa? […]
4 February 2008
GM Vaccines in South Africa – a case for the precautionary principle
Vaccines containing living genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are still at an experimental level in the world today. In South Africa, the first clinical trials for genetically modified (GM) vaccines were approved in 2003. These included several trials for HIV and TB vaccines, while several more applications for trials are pending, including those for other GM […]
28 January 2008
Agrofuels in South Africa – projects, players and poverty
The South African government has readily embraced the establishment of an agrofuels industry, citing job creation, the need for clean and renewable energy and the creation of markets for small-holder farmers, as key motivators. Nevertheless, it is our view that the logic of the Biofuels Strategy to introduce large-scale, mono-crop agriculture into the former homelands […]
28 January 2008
Marine Bioprospecting – key challenges and the situation in South Africa
Marine bioprospecting, also known as marine natural products research, is concerned with the exploration and exploitation of the rich biological and chemical diversity found in marine organisms which inhabit the oceans. Marine bioprospecting is a relatively new endeavour, having its origins in the late 1940’s, 8 when Werner Bergman ‘discovered’ arabinoside sugar in marine sponges, […]
28 January 2008
Public Participation in context of Patent Laws in South Africa
The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) has only recently commenced its work in the fi eld of bioprospecting and biopiracy. A booklet as part of our Biosafety, Biopiracy and Biopolitics series titled, “Bioprospecting, Biopiracy and Indigenous Knowledge: two case studies from the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa” by Koyama and Mayet, has been published. In […]