Latest Tag: Biosafety Resources

Minister Steenhuisen, when can we expect the Registrar to respond? Today marks a year since we called for a review of the registration of 2,4-D in South Africa, in a letter to the Registrar: Act No. 36 of 1947, Mr Jonathan Mudzunga. With no substantive response forthcoming, despite substantiation in a further submission, and persistent […]

5 December 2024 A group of organisations, academics, and unions has today sent a letter of demand to Minister of Agriculture, Mr John Steenhuisen, requiring him to immediately ban the lethal chemical that has been implicated in the deaths of six children – Terbufos. At least 22 people have reportedly died from ingesting highly hazardous […]

—— Press release ———- 30 September 2024 Genetically modified (GM) wheat, purported to be drought tolerant, is set to be grown in field trials in South Africa during 2025 and 2026, at three locations in the Western Cape (near Moorreesburg, Protem, and Swellendam) and one in the Northern Cape (near Hopetown), following an application for […]

PRESS RELEASE 5 February 2024 The African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), welcomes the final decision taken by the South African Minister of Agriculture Ms Thoko Didiza, in terms of section 19 of the Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) Act of 1997, to uphold the October 2021 decision of the Executive Council (EC) that the risk assessment […]

 Dear friends and colleagues, The ACB, supported by 18 organisations/networks in South Africa, has made a substantive submission to the Registrar of the Fertilizers, Farm Feeds, Seeds and Remedies Act 36 of 1947 (commonly referred to as Act 36), to institute a review in terms of section 4 of the Act 36, into the continued […]

 We call on the government to reverse approval of GM wheat into our country Thank you to the 80+ organisations, listed below, who support this ACB submission to the South African Biosafety authorities, the Executive Council (EC): GMO Act, to review and reassess its decision to grant approval for the importation into South Africa of […]

DISASTER CAPITALISM, BIOTECH INDUSTRY IN DECLINE & INSTRUMENTALISATION OF WHEAT IN AFRICA In August 2022, the South African government approved a GM wheat variety HB4 for importation as food, feed, and for the purposes of industrial food and feed processing, following Nigeria’s approval in July. Since then, Argentina and Brazil have been the only two […]

The case for categorising 2,4-D as a highly hazardous pesticide in South Africa In December 2019, three genetically modified (GM maize) varieties developed by Corteva (formally Dow AgroSciences) – genetically engineered to tolerate the toxic and highly hazardous chemical 2,4-D – were approved for commercial cultivation in South Africa, despite many long years of opposition […]

In 2023, on 7-8 February, the ACB finally had a court hearing in the High Court in Pretoria, after five years of protracted legal proceedings since we lodged the application for a review. The aim has been to overturn the decisions of the South African Executive Council: GMO Act (EC), the GMO Appeal Board, and […]

On Tuesday and Wednesday this week, 7-8 February, the ACB’s case was heard in the High Court. Five years earlier, the ACB lodged the application for this review, to overturn the decisions of the South African Executive Council (EC): Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) Act, the GMO Appeal Board, and the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and […]

In 2017, the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) lodged legal proceedings with the High Court of South Africa to review and overturn the decisions of the South African Executive Council: GMO Act (EC), the GMO Appeal Board, and the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, approving Monsanto/Bayer’s genetically modified (GM) drought-tolerant (DT) maize variety MON […]

The ACB was shocked to discover that over the past years research has been conducted for the application for field trials of a genetically modified (GM) insect-resistant (Bt) and herbicide-tolerant (Ht) sugar cane variety, primarily as protection against the lepidopteran stalk borer Eldana saccharina. As we report in our new alert, in the same timeframe, […]