SOURCE: AfricaFiles, Canada

AUTHOR: Munyaradzi Makoni

URL: http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=22494

DATE: 14.12.2009

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AFRICA'S LONG WALK TO BIOSAFETY

http://www.seattlepi.com/business/1310ap_us_seed_giant.html
Monsanto seed business role revealed
By Christopher Leonard, AP
December 14 2009
EDITED

Confidential contracts detailing Monsanto Co.'s business practices reveal how the world's biggest seed developer is squeezing competitors, controlling smaller seed companies and protecting its dominance over the multibillion-dollar market for genetically altered crops, an Associated Press investigation has found.

Gates Foundation joins global crop research network

by Yojana Sharma
10 December 2009 | EN

Pingali: CGIAR should once again attract the 'best and the brightest' scientists"

International agricultural development research is set to receive a major boost with the announcement that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will formally join the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

BAYER MUST PAY FARMERS FOR CONTAMINATED RICE CROP

Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Bayer CropScience LP must pay about $2 million for losses sustained by two Missouri farmers when an experimental variety of rice the company was testing cross-bred with their crops, a federal jury ruled.

Today‚s verdict in St. Louis came in the first trial in what is intended to be a series of test cases against the unit of Leverkusen, Germany-based Bayer AG. The jury of four men and five women began deliberating on Dec. 2, about a month after it began hearing claims brought by Kenneth Bell and Johnny Hunter.

Kenya: Gates Foundation and Monsanto to Develop Genetically Modified Seeds for Small Farmers
http://www.ratio-magazine.com/200911261425/Kenya/Kenya-Gates-Foundation-and-Monsanto-to-Develop-Genetically-Modified-Seeds-for-Small-Farmers.html

Author: Haidee Swanby
Published by: African Centre for Biosafety, South Africa
November 2009

In this briefing the Ms Swanby on behalf of the ACB salutes the initiatives taken by the AU in the biosafety discourse on the continent to date, including the early harmonisation attempts by its predecessor, the Organisation of African Union (OAU) to put in place a Model Law on Safety in Biotechnology. At that time, the OAU's harmonisation approach was to bring about a consistent African approach to biosafety regulation based strongly on the precautionary principle.

However, this briefing continues to warn of the dangers lurking in the AU's Biosafety Stategy with regard to proposed biosafety harmonisation processes that involve several players that cause us great concern. These players include: Regional Economic Communities (RECs), who have a decidedly pro trade and pro GM agenda and whose biosafety initiatives have to date been funded by USAID. The briefing points out that the harmonisation approach favoured by USAID is one that creates a one stop GMO approval system, and thereby side stepping a country-by-country, case-by-case risk assessment and decision-making process.