Publications

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 processed. There is every sign that the moratorium will be lifted, heralding the opening of the floodgates to a tsunami of new GMOs onto the South African market. These include GM rice and new varieties of food crops such as soya beans and maize containing multiple or “stacked” genes which pose huge risks to human health and the environment.

Read the full report here

PHILIP BRASHER
Des Moines Register, 17 May 2009

Washington, D.C. - Congress has largely stayed out of the battles over genetically engineered crops, but that could change with a foreign aid bill that could target research money to agricultural biotechnology.

COPENHAGEN, 14 May (IRIN) - A plan by the Africa Commission to side-step African governments and target the private sector to invigorate the continent's business and agricultural capacity, thereby stimulating job creation, was launched in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, on 6 May.

According to the Commission's committee members - heads of state, members of civil society, academia and international and regional organisations, mainly from Africa - the proposals break from the ever-growing catalogue of help schemes for the world's poorest continent.

African Centre for Biosafety produces another Briefing paper, titled: "Africa's Green Revolution rolls out the Gene Revolution" by Mariam Mayet.

"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 of GM companies and GM technologies hovers over the Green Revolution push like a bad dream.

Greenpeace, rights group accuse Bayer, IITA of producing deadly
varieties

Bayo Akomolafe

Nigerians who love eating rice and cassava products may very soon stand the
risk of exposure to killer varieties of the staples. German chemical giant,
Bayer, has created a Genetically-Engineered (GE) rice capable of putting
people's health, agriculture and biodiversity at risk, not only in Nigeria,
but in some other selected African countries.

The Nigerian market, which is among the top 10 in Africa, has been targeted
for direct sale of the deadly rice variety.

For Immediate Release
April 1, 2009

Originally published here

The University of California at Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism has received a two-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop an intensive training program designed to promote high quality media coverage of agricultural development issues in Africa.