While the Gates Foundation and conservative politicians are bigging up GMOs and agribusiness, writes Colin Todhunter, a quiet revolution has been working its way across Africa. Agroecological farming, constantly adapting to local needs, customs, soils and climates, has been improving nutrition, reducing poverty, combatting climate change, and enriching farmland.
… The tremendous success of agroecology in Africa Colion Todhunter | 21st November 2015 News Farming The Land Africa GMOs Climate Change Green Economy farm-africa-cut.jpg While the Gates Foundation and …
GM crops may benefit agribusiness, writes Andrew Adam-Bradford. But they offer little to Africa or the millions of farming communities that feed the continent. Rather than impose corporate 'solutions', governments should invest in indigenous agro-ecological farming.
… GMOs - but there are smarter ways to feed Africa Andrew Adam-Bradford | 9th August 2014 Comment Africa Kenya Farming GMOs Development Corporations woman-farmer-africa-cut.jpg GM crops may benefit …
Africa's biotech establishment is deploying its biggest guns to attack NGOs opposed to GMO crops to help push through Ghana's corporation-friendly Plant Breeders Bill - a key element in the corporate enclosure of Africa's farming, seeds and agricultural heritage.
… Ghana | 17th February 2015 Comment GMOs Africa Corporations Science Commons Health cowpea-harvest-ghana-cut.jpg Africa's biotech establishment is deploying … - a key element in the corporate enclosure of Africa's farming, seeds and agricultural …
Sharing and saving seed is a crucial part of traditional farming all over Africa, writes Heidi Chow. Maybe that's why governments, backed by multinational seed companies, are imposing oppressive seed laws that attack the continent's main food producers and open the way to industrial agribusiness. But Ghana's women farmers are having none of it.
… women farmers resist the G7 plan to grab Africa's seeds Heidi Chow | 22nd May 2015 Activism Farming Africa Seeds Ghana GMOs Corporations women … crucial part of traditional farming all over Africa, writes Heidi Chow. Maybe that's why …
The European Parliament today called on the Commission and member states like the UK to stop funding the 'New Alliance' plan to force export-oriented agribusiness onto Africa. Instead they want support for small-scale family farms and agroecology.
… 'aid' funding billions to agribusiness in Africa Oliver Tickell | 7th June 2016 News Corporations Aid Food Farming EU Africa GMOs Agroecology fatu-kanu-cut.jpg The … to force export-oriented agribusiness onto Africa. Instead they want support for …
The European Parliament has had a great week, writes Molly Scott Cato MEP - for those who oppose GMOs in food and farming. MEPs voted on five occasions to say no to GMOs, and gave their support to agroecology as the only sustainable way to feed the world.
… no 'new' GMOs, no GMOs in the EU, no GMOs in Africa! Molly Scott Cato | 9th June 2016 Comment GMOs Food Farming Politics EU Africa Corporations soy-depot-cut.jpg The … negotiations. No to GMO imports! No GMOs in Africa! Two objections to the authorisation …
The Gates Foundation - widely assumed to be 'doing good', is imposing a neoliberal model of development and corporate domination that's opening up Africa's agriculture to land and seed-grabbing global agribusiness, writes Colin Todhunter. In the process it is foreclosing on the real solutions - enhancing food security, food sovereignty and the move to agroecological farming.
… is spearheading the neoliberal plunder of African agriculture Colin Todhunter | 21st January 2016 News Africa Farming Corporations Development GMOs … and corporate domination that's opening up Africa's agriculture to land and seed-grabbing …
The Gates Foundation has received a 57,000 strong petition denouncing its support for a 'biopirated' GM banana program in Africa, and calling on it to suspend a feeding trial on US students, writes Vanessa Amaral-Rogers. The banana threatens both the health of the students, say campaigners, and the future of African agriculture.
… for a 'biopirated' GM banana program in Africa, and calling on it to suspend a feeding … students, say campaigners, and the future of African agriculture. On Monday this week Iowa … introduce the GM banana to Uganda and other African countries. The petition was initiated …
Perhaps all the 'do gooders' busy forcing industrial models of agriculture onto poor but independent African farmers really do think they are helping them, writes Colin Todhunter. But if so they are deeply deluded. All they will achieve is the takeover of export-oriented agribusiness and GMOs, the destruction of agroecological farming systems, and a future of debt and landlessness.
… embedding agribusiness and GMOs into African agriculture Colin Todhunter | 8th April 2016 Comment Farming Africa GMOs Nutrition Health Finance … of agriculture onto poor but independent African farmers really do think they are …
Over 100,000 Burkina Faso farmers were pleased with Monsanto's yield-boosting Bt cotton, write Brian Dowd-Uribe & Matthew Schnurr. But not the companies that had to buy the crop at a fixed government-set price. The shorter fibres produced by Bt varieties led to less lint being extracted, and of lower quality, making it a lose-lose proposition for the country's most important industry.
… Schnurr | 9th February 2016 Comment GMOs Africa Burkina Faso Farming … necessary tool to fight hunger and poverty in Africa. But something Gates did not discuss … news that the largest and most significant African adopter of GM crops - Burkina Faso - …
Nineteen African nations meet today in Arusha, Tanzania, to finalise a 'plant protection' protocol that would open up the continent's seeds to corporate interests, taking away farmers' rights to grow, improve, sell and exchange their traditional seeds, while allowing commercial breeders to make free use of the biodiversity they embody, to sell them back to farmers in 'improved' form.
… Freedom! A last chance to thwart the great African seed grab Ali-Masmadi Jehu-Appiah | … GMOs Regulation green-seeds-cut.jpg Nineteen African nations meet today in Arusha, … form. This is a crucial week for millions of African farmers - the week in which, under the …
In her new book The Vandana Shiva Reader, the celebrated campaigner and scientist deplores the way in which the Green Revolution forced India's poorest farmers off their land, writes Colin Tudge. Now she fears even worse outcomes in Africa where a GMO-fuelled farming revolution is under way.
… Tudge. Now she fears even worse outcomes in Africa where a GMO-fuelled farming revolution … from on high of another Green Revolution in Africa - which indeed is already train. But … be true, and seen to be above all criticism. Africa's GMO revolution, courtesy of Bill and …
Reports show that traditional breeding techniques are years ahead of GM technologies in developing crops to withstand drought and poor soils, writes Lawrence Woodward. Yet GM advocates are sticking rigidly to their script even as the evidence mounds against them ...
… its launch in 2010, the Improved Maize for African Soils Project (IMAS) has developed 21 … programme - The Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa project - 153 new, conventionally bred … varieties that had been successfully grown in Africa. According to Kevin Pixley, director of …
Some of the world's most powerful figures tout the benefits of GMOs, writes Stacy Malkan, but what's the real story? Facts on the ground expose the PR spin, half truths and outright propaganda that has come to dominate a public conversation that is not so much about engineering genes, but engineering truth for the benefit of multinational corporations.
… vitamin fortification. "And so I think, for Africa, this is going to make a huge … (breeding)." Gates responded: "Well, the Africans it's up in the air, and Kenya just … using these things and if you want farmers in Africa to improve nutrition and be competitive …
The Gates Foundation has sunk $15 million into developing GMO 'super bananas' with high levels of pre-Vitamin A, writes Adam Breasley. But the project is using 'stolen' genes from a Micronesian banana cultivar. And what exactly is the point, when delicious, popular, nutritious 'red bananas' rich in caroteinoids are already grown around the tropics?
… impact on staple food products across much of Africa and in doing so lift the health and … are popular across south Asia, the Pacific, Africa and Central and South America, and many … daily consumption for vulnerable malnourished African infants. Dr Dale himself has said he …
The Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture made its high-profile launch at the New York Climate Summit. But for a huge coalition of civil society organizations, it's a 'greenwash' initiative designed to promote intensive profit-driven industrial agriculture at the expense of small farmers, environment, and the real solutions.
… pour la Protection du Patrimoine Genetique African (COPAGEN) Corporate Europe Observatory … Abalimi Bezekhaya (Farmers of Hope), South Africa ACRA-CCS Foundation, Italy Action Contre la Faim, France Africa Europe Faith & Justice Network (AEFJN), …
Groups representing over 5 million Nigerians are resisting Monsanto's attempt to introduce GM maize and cotton, writes Vanessa Amaral-Rogers. With growing evidence of harm to human health and environment, and failing GM crops in other countries, they say Monsanto's applications must be refused.
… 2016 News Nigeria Farming GMOs Corporations Africa Regulation 25017341159_6580237138_o.jpg … of these crops especially GM cotton in Africa. In their objection to the commercial … Oilwatch Nigeria Green Alliance, Nigeria African Centre for Leadership, Strategy & …
Cornell, one of the world's leading academic institutions, has abandoned scientific objectivity, writes Stacy Malkan - and instead made itself a global hub for the promotion of GM crops and food. Working with selected journalists and industry-supported academics, Cornell's so-called 'Alliance for Science' is an aggressive propaganda tool for corporate biotech and agribusiness.
… a paper about how GMOs are needed to feed Africa. "Monsanto not only suggested the topic … spent by Gates Foundation to feed the poor in Africa went to wealthy nations . A new report … as murderers of millions of children in Africa for raising concerns about DDT. That …
The real reason why 'golden rice' remains uncultivated after a 20 year effort is its poor agronomic performance, write Angelika Hilbeck & Hans Herren. But beyond that, the very idea of golden rice as a 'solution' to Vitamin A deficiency fails to recognise the real causes of malnutrition - poverty, hunger and poor diet. How will golden rice reach poor children in the first place? And will they ever get the rich, oily diet they need to assimilate its fat-soluble nutrients?
… urban slums and remote rural areas of Asia or Africa, or at least the Philippines, every … biofortified varieties all over Asia and Africa, how will this be implemented? Who will … the rice producers and consumers of Asia and Africa if they want many of their rice …
Green soap-maker Ecover is the first company to openly admit that that it's using ingredients derived from 'synthetically modified organisms' - the next wave of GMOs - writes Jim Thomas. So why are they risking their ‘natural' brand for this experimental biotechnology?
… are already displacing food production in Africa and Asia, and it must have felt like … of investors who are grabbing land in Africa and Asia, cutting down forests to turn … destruction, albeit in South America and not Africa and Asia. Same problem, different crop. …
The UK Government policy on genetically modified (GM) crops is "precautionary, evidence-based and sensitive to public concerns". Lesley Docksey asks: who are they kidding?
… cosy government/biotech relationship in South Africa. This month the African Centre for Biosafety, having already … to the detriment of the poorest people. In Africa , only South Africa, Egypt, Sudan and …
The Global GMO Free Coalition brings together 60 groups across six continents with over 4.5 million members - all committed to fighting GMO / biotech industry propaganda. Meanwhile Russia is leading the way to GMO freedom ...
… Netherlands, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, South Africa, New Caledonia, Ghana, Georgia and …
Monsanto's genetically modified cotton 'success' narrative for Burkina Faso was built on studies with methodological problems.
… with methodological problems. The West African nation of Burkina Faso was once the … happened? Failure Burkina Faso was the first African country where a GM crop was … is still used to advance other ventures in Africa. Anthropologist Glenn Stone has argued …
Greenpeace is being attacked for 'crimes against humanity' by 100 Nobel laureates for blocking GMO 'golden' rice, reports Claire Robinson. But the low-yielding crop is years away from going on sale, and there is no proof of any nutritional benefit to the malnourished children it's meant to benefit. Could the distinguished prize-winners have fallen for slick pro-GMO PR and spin?
… the greatest impact on the poorest people in Africa and Southeast Asia." The letter calls …