Latest Resources

Spiritual and Cultural Value of Seed in South Africa

Spiritual and Cultural Value of Seed in South Africa is the second video in a six part series covering discussions from the National Seed Dialogue and Celebration, an event hosted by ACB. The seed, like the big bang, or evolution, or the atom … bears the mystifying tale of a beginning. We fill our bellies […]

Politics of seed in South Africa

Hosted by the African Centre for Biodiversity at Constitution Hill in December 2017, the National Seed Dialogue and Celebration honoured the role of smallholder farmers in maintaining and nurturing the diversity of seed in South Africa and regionally, who are being displaced and overridden by a growing private seed sector. The event included thought-provoking dialogues […]

Objection to Application by Dow for general release of GM maize: MON89034 X TC1507 x NK603 with t...

The ACB has played an essential watch-dog role on new GMO permits in South Africa for a decade now, adding substantially to the discourse about the scientific assessment of GMOs as well as about issues of socioeconomic impacts and democratic decisionmaking, through lodging substantive comments on at least 30 permit applications. We are objecting to […]

ACB’s Objection to Monsanto’s Application for Commodity Clearance of MON 87708 × MON 89788 × A554...

ACB is objecting to the commodity clearance of the triple-stacked GM soybean event MON 87708 x MON 89788 x A5547-127, due to concerns surrounding the lack of safety assessment data for this crop and the known toxicity of the three pesticides it is designed to tolerate. Its tolerance to three pesticides, glyphosate, glufosinate and dicamba […]

Comments on the Competition Amendment Bill 2017

ACB has responded to the Economic Development Department (EDD) call for comments on the Competition Amendment Bill 2017. The amendments aim to strengthen the powers of the competition authorities to proactively investigate and develop remedies to deconcentrate markets. Although we do not agree with EDD’s entire approach to concentration (for example, that concentration and economies […]

MVIWATA and ACB Opposing Application for Field trials of Stacked GM Maize MON 87460 X MON 810

The Tanzania National Farmers Network Organisation, Mtandao wa Vikundi vya Wakulima Tanzania (MVIWATA) and the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) are objecting to an application submitted by the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) for confined field trials of Monsanto’s stacked GM maize MON 87460 X MON 810 (GM drought tolerant stacked with throw-away […]

Food Systems of the Future Public Talk

The ACB in partnership with Wits Inala Forum had the honour of hosting Pat Mooney, Donna Andrews, John Nzira and Stephen Greenberg at a public talk at Wits University on the 12th of May 2017, in the light of the three mega mergers taking place. The title of the talk was “Food Systems of the […]

FISPs Factsheets: Transitioning out of FISPs

The final factsheet in this series looks at how FISPs should be phased out and replaced with new approaches with long term benefits. Chichewa | English | Nyanja | Portuguese | Sesotho | Setswana | Shona | Siswati | Swahili | Xhosa To read and download all the factsheets in this series, click here.

FISPs Factsheets: FISPs promote small-scale farmer dependency

The sixth factsheet in this series looks at how the FISPs have resulted in high levels of farmer dependency across Southern Africa. Chichewa | English | Nyanja | Portuguese | Sesotho | Setswana | Shona | Siswati | Swahili | Xhosa For the final factsheet in this series, click here.

FISPs Factsheets: FISPs and political patronage

The fifth factsheet in this series looks at how these Farm Input Subsidy Programmes are being used to gain political patronage. Chichewa | English | Nyanja | Portuguese | Sesotho | Setswana | Shona | Siswati | Swahili | Xhosa For the next factsheet in the series, click here.