corporate control in african agriculture

Despite the grave warnings of the COVID 19 pandemic and the increased need to de-colonise and de-corporatise our food systems and shift towards sovereignty, there continues to be an increase in the applications for genetically modified organisms (GMOs) of the 2,4-D variety, for introduction into the South African farming and food system. 

This trend is extremely worrying, especially in the light of the approval of 2,4-D maize varieties for cultivation, and 2,4-D soybean GM events under trials. As it is, South Africa’s agricultural and food system is heavily burdened with the increased use of pesticide due to the prevalence of industrial, chemical-based crop production. This rise is due to the limitations of the current biosafety regulatory system, which does not provide a coherent, inclusive and integrated assessment of associated chemical use with GMOs. 

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This is the fourth of six publications in the ACB’s multiple shocks in Africa series: ecological crisis, capitalist nature & decolonisation for human and ecological liberation.

Given our internationalist commitment, Multiple shocks, agribusiness feudalism and the monopolisation of peasant territories: a view from Ecuador on agrobiodiversity and the peasant web of life looks at how shocks are used to further industrialise maize production in Ecuador, through the provision of “farming kits”, which is undermining the ecological basis of peasant seed and farming systems. 

On Tuesday March 9, the managing editor of U.S. Right to Know, Stacy Malkan published an article: The next neocolonial gold rush? African food systems are the ‘new oil,’ UN documents say.