Latest Resources
15 May 2009
SNAPSHOT: South Africa facing a tsunami of risky GMOs
The African Centre for Biosafety has closely monitored GMO approvals in South Africa for several years. Several far-reaching changes are currently taking place. A wave of new GMOs are expected to flood the South African market during 2009, as the backlog of commodity import permits that have been stalled since 2005, are about to be […]
15 May 2009
Africa’s Green Revolution rolls out the Gene Revolution
The ‘New Green Revolution in Africa’, touted since the 1990s, was given renewed impetus two and a half years ago, when the Rockefeller and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations launched the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). Although AGRA itself does not incorporate genetically modified (GM) crops in its projects, the ominous presence […]
26 March 2009
Genes from Africa: the Colonisation of Human DNA
Indigenous people’s groups and NGOs have waged a long and bitter struggle against the Human Genome Diversity Project and similar efforts to collect the DNA of indigenous and other peoples without appropriate consent and sufficient safeguards against abuse. The Human Genome Diversity Project (HGDP), the brainchild of Italian geneticist Luca Cavalli-Sforza, comprised of a group […]
6 March 2009
Case Study: South Africa’s Traceability and Segregation systems for GM Grains
During 13-17 March 2006, the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol Biosafety (‘Biosafety Protocol’) will try, after several previous unsuccessful attempts, to craft minimum standards for a global segregation, traceability and accountability system to apply to the cross border movement of bulk shipments of genetically modified (GM) grain. The mechanisms of such a system will depend […]
28 January 2009
GMOs in South Africa – 2008 Overviews
From January 2007 to July 2008 the GMO Executive Council, the governmental body responsible for granting GMO permits in South Africa, granted a staggering 425 new permits for import, export, commodity clearance and general and trial release. The vast majority of these permits were for commodity imports of GM maize from Argentina for use in […]
28 January 2009
A Green Revolution for Africa: Disaster in the making
When world leaders hastily gathered at the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation’s (FAO) high level conference to respond to the global food crisis the three Rome based UN organizations (the FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural development and the World Food Programme) signed a memorandum of understanding with the Alliance for a Green Revolution in […]
22 August 2008
Letter from McDonalds Restaurant re GM Potatoes
Allegedly, McDonald’s is committed to providing quality food to our customers and source our products and ingredients from the best suppliers locally and globally. In South Africa, their potatoes are sourced from McCain Foods and so we asked their Managing Director, Mr Owen Porteus, to provide us with full clarification on the use of GMO […]
30 April 2008
“Knowledge not for Sale” – A Briefing Paper by the African Centre for Biosafety
The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) is a non-profit, activist NGO based in South Africa, specialising in promoting biosafety and challenging biopiracy, agrofuels and the commodification of biological resources and associated traditional knowledge. Read more here.
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.
5 March 2008
New GM Potato Book: Executive Summary
In 2001, the South African Agricultural Research Council (ARC) began conducting field trials with potatoes genetically modified to contain a Bt gene Cry1Ia1 (formerly BtCryV). This novel gene is intended to protect the plants and potato tubers from infestations of the Potato tuber moth (Phthorimaea operculella). This research is not home grown or ‘truly South […]