Latest Resources
16 September 2006
Environmental Risk Assessment Framework for Genetically Modified Organisms
Submission to the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism on the ‘Environmental Risk Assessment Framework for Genetically Modified Organisms’ Submitted by the African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) and Earthlife Africa eThekwini branch (ELA) Read here.
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
11 May 2006
Mozambique – GMO Legislation
The proposed biosafety regulatory regime (hereafter referred to as the “draft biosafety law” or “biosafety law”) of the Republic of Mozambique consists of a draft Decree of Council of Ministers, containing the biosafety regulation and 2 draft technical guidelines for risk evaluation as well as public awareness and participation in biosafety and biotechnology related issues. […]
6 May 2006
South Africa, Bioethanol and GMOs: A Heady Mixture
On the 12th of May 2006 Syngenta South Africa (Pty) Ltd, a subsidiary of Swiss chemical giant Syngenta, notified the public of its intention to seek commodity clearance for its GM maize for the use in the production of ethanol. This is the first GM application for commercial approval in the world for a non-feed, […]
11 April 2006
South Africa – GMO Act 15
Submission To Chairpersons Of Portfolio Committees Of: Agriculture And Land Affairs, Environmental Affairs And Tourism, Science And Technology, Health, Trade And Industry, Water Affairs And Forestry, Labour Mariam Mayet, April 2006. Read here. Supported by South African Freeze Alliance on Genetic Engineering, Earthlife Africa, Safe Food Coalition, Ekogaia Foundation, Farmers Legal Action Group-South Africa, Noordhoek […]
1 March 2006
The status of Genetically Modified (GM) pharmaceutical crop research in South Africa
Genetically modified (GM) pharmaceutical crops are crops which have been genetically engineered / modified to produce pharmaceuticals. These pharmaceuticals can be vaccines, anti-bodies or therapeutic proteins. Pharma-crops (as they are known) are a contested and little-known terrain, with remarkable benefits being claimed for them in South Africa. Other voices ask about the contamination of the […]
28 January 2006
Out of Africa: Mysteries of access and benefit sharing
In late 2005 the Edmunds Institute and the African Centre for Biosafety contacted famed bio-pirate hunter Jay McGowan to investigate incidences of access and benefit sharing in Africa. Despite many constraints on the research, McGowan found a plethora of incidents where transnational corporations had utilised African biodiversity without concluding benefit sharing agreements with the local […]
27 January 2006
Biohazard Map of GM Field Trials in SA
Now that the dust is settling after industry’s aggressive PR hype about the unsubstantiated increase in South Africa’s GM commercial plantings for 2006, we bring to you, based upon empirical data, a short briefing paper on the field trials of GMOs grown in South Africa during 2006, compiled by ACB researcher, Rose Williams. This briefing […]