Latest Resources
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 […]
28 August 2006
GM Cassava fails in Africa
The Donald Danforth plant science centre (the ‘Danforth Centre’), who’s partners include Monsanto corporation, has been pursuing disease-resistant Cassava since 1999 for its projects in Kenya. Despite initially claiming a breakthrough, the group has subsequently conceded (on the 26th of May, 2006) that its GM virus resistant Cassava has now lost resistance to the African […]
24 August 2006
Is South Africa in the US WTO Sights Over GM Import Ban?
Opinion And Analysis: By Mariam Mayet, August 2006 South Africa’s ban on GM import approvals South Africa’s pro-genetic engineering (GE) stance is well documented[1] and enshrined in national government policy. [2] During the period 2001-4, South Africa’s Executive Council (ExCo)[3] established under the Genetically Modified Organisms Act (GMO Act) has allowed the importation into South […]
2 August 2006
South Africa’s ban on GM import approvals
In September/October 2005, at the behest of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Executive Council (EC): GMO Act took the decision not to approve any more new GM applications for the purposes of importation in South Africa as food, feed and processing. The decision was taken to accommodate serious concerns by the DTI […]
27 July 2006
Can the poor help GM crops? Technology, Representation, and Cotton in the Makhathini Flats
The adoption of Genetically Modified (GM) cotton in South Africa’s Makhathini Flats in 1998 was heralded as a case in which agricultural biotechnology could benefit smallholder farmers, and a model for the rest of the continent to follow. Using historical, political economic and ethnographic data, we find the initial enthusiasm around GM technology to be […]
27 June 2006
Groups in Latin America and Africa call for rejection of World Bank GEF biosafety projects
Two World Bank projects, with funding from the GEF (Global Environmental Facility), propose to introduce genetically modified crops such as maize, potatoes, cassava, rice and cotton into African and Latin American countries that are centres of origin or diversity for these and other major food crops. Civil society organisations warn that DNA contamination from genetically […]
4 June 2006
Article 18(2)(a): The Trojan Horse of the Biosafety Protocol
Read the article here. By Mariam Mayet African Centre for Biosafety July 2006 The “may contain” labels flood the feed sector. Even transboundary movements which could pass as GM-free under existing legislation for LMO-FFPs are labelled as “may contain”. Grain trade and important ports are leading in this clever move which actually ridicules the Protocol. […]