We the undersigned representing civil society groups are concerned about recent statements that emanated from the first Pan African Biotechnology Stewardship Conference held in Accra, Ghana on the 1st of December 2011, which called on Africans to use biotechnology to provide ”poor farmers with healthier, more bountiful crops to reduce hunger and poverty in Africa”. [...] We are disappointed that an unproven and unsafe technology is being foisted on Africa simply because of the unfortunate continual characterization of Africa as a chronically hungry continent. [...] Our agricultural systems are threatened by industries that seek to control our food and our livelihoods by destroying our agricultural systems.