Latest Resources

31 May 2018

Parliamentary consultation & decision making on SA’s Corporate Seed Bills a Sham!!

The African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) is deeply concerned that South Africa’s draconian corporate seed Bills were approved by the Parliamentary Select Committee on the 22nd May 2018, with no substantial changes being made. This despite a number of provinces having rejected the Bills entirely on the basis that they did not adequately serve the […]

31 May 2018

Participatory Plant Breeding and Smallholder Farmers

The National Seed Dialogue and Celebration was hosted by the African Centre for Biodiversity at Constitution Hill in December 2017. The third video in this series, Participatory Plant Breeding and Smallholder Farmers looked at issues of smallholder farmers & seed breeding/crop improvement and the potential roles of smallholder farmers in these processes were discussed. Since […]

18 May 2018

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 […]

7 May 2018

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 […]

5 April 2018

A tale of neo-apartheid plans, dodgy dealings and corporate capture: Government support to South ...

Press Release from the African Centre for Biodiversity Johannesburg, Thursday 5 April 2018 Limited transparency, weak accountability, and capture by corporations and politically-connected individuals. These are features of the current South African landscape found in government’s smallholder farmer support programmes, according to a research report by African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) released today. The report, […]

21 June 2017

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 […]

25 May 2017

War Chemical 2,4 D GM maize in SA: in the fields and coming to our plates soon

Press Release from the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), Trust for Community Outreach and Education (TCOE) and the Commercial & the Stevedoring, Agricultural and Allied Workers Union (CSAAWU) Thursday, 25 May 2017 The African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) has published a briefing paper today titled, ‘South Africa and 2,4 D GM maize: Biosafety, Socio economic […]

9 May 2017

South Africa’s Competition Commission gives conditional approval for Bayer-Monsanto merger

In December 2016 Monsanto shareholders voted in favour of the sale of the company to Bayer for US$66 billion, making it the largest-ever foreign corporate takeover by a German company. The deal requires approval from about 30 regulatory agencies around the world. The Competition Commission of South Africa (CCSA) was the first to be officially […]

25 April 2017

Profits, power and myth making: Monsanto’s ‘bogus’ GM drought tolerant maize challenged in South ...

The African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) has lodged an appeal to the High Court of South Africa to overturn decisions of the GMO authority, the GMO Appeal Board and the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, to commercialise Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) drought-tolerant (DT) maize seed. More than 25 000 concerned citizens have signed petitions […]

13 February 2017

Bayer-Monsanto merger: An existential threat to South Africa’s food system

In December 2016 Monsanto shareholders voted in favour of the sale of the company to Bayer for US$66 billion, making it the largest-ever foreign corporate takeover by a German company. Both Bayer and Monsanto are major global manufacturers of agrochemicals and seeds, including genetically modified seed. A merged entity would be the world’s largest supplier […]