Text: Richard Emblin. Article from the November 2013 issue of Noseweek Magazine.
Seed regulation is among the long list of grievances behind the Colombian agricultural strike.
For more than two decades Colombian agronomist German Alonso Vélez has led a campaign as director of the NGO Semillas, to see Colombia’s native seeds circulated freely across the territory. For every planting season, tens of thousands of Colombian farmers are forced to buy only seeds certified by the country’s agricultural institute, ICA.
The issue of the free flow of seeds in one of the world’s most agriculturally-diverse nations dates back to 2010 when the ICA promulgated a regulation known as 9.70, which essentially gives the ICA powers to police and fine or jail those who exchange native seeds that haven’t been rubber-stamped by the ICA.
The seed regulation is one of a long list of grievances behind the recent Paro Agrario (the agricultural strike) by Colombian farmers because of their dire economic situation, made worse by high fuel prices and burdensome tariffs on imported pesticides.
“Colombia should be food sufficient, but we are not,” says Vélez.
A documentary by journalist Victoria Solano titled 9.70 has gone viral on social media. It shows ICA officials confiscating rice from farmers in the small community of Campoalegre, Huila. Accompanied by anti-riot police, they destroyed 70 tonnes of rice belonging to small-scale farmers.
Colombia’s biodiversity must be protected against GMOs, warns Vélez.
The destruction of crops and grain is unacceptable in a country which takes great pride in working the land. In 2010 when 9.70 was promulgated, it had an instant impact on Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities who had been sharing seed and sending it to the market without the real fear of their being seized and destroyed. Seed sharing is a tradition deeply rooted in Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities dating back to the Spanish conquest of the Americas. “Seeds don’t belong to governments,” says Vélez. “They belong to peoples.”
In the first week of September, after farmers joined in the nationwide protests and riots by miners, Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos, froze all the conditions that could result in small-scale farmers being penalised for re-using seed.
Santos also promised to revise certain regulations regarding the importation of foreign-grown grains and produce that should form part of the nation’s agricultural basket.
For seed campaigner Vélez, although this was a small step in the right direction, the greater threat is from genetically modified crops destroying locally grown agriculture. The impact of GM crops has yet to be fully understood by a majority of Colombians.
Vélez first took up the challenge of defending Colombia’s food diversity when in 1998 he went to work with indigenous communities in the Amazon Basin. Looking at how small and remote towns established self-sufficient orchards and food networks, the agronomist began gathering research material on the Amazon’s extensive agro-diversity, and a know-how which could be applied to other rural and vulnerable communities.
With the help of the SwissAid foundation, whose vision is “a just and peaceful world that celebrates diversity”, the NGO Semillas got off the ground and began working closely with small-scale farmers in the Tolima and Cauca departments. The founding objective was to protect land titles, the conservation of forests, water sources and traditional food diversity.
Part of Semillas’s greater philosophy has been to educate farmers about their agricultural rights. “We studied traditional agriculture and saw how it applies on a national scale,” states Vélez. “If Colombia is not careful in protecting its traditional farming methods, it could become 100 percent dependent on foreign-grown foods, especially GMOs.”
The introduction and expansion of genetically engineered crops in the late 1990s has adversely affected the livelihoods of Colombia’s small-scale farmers. To get across the message about the importance of seed preservation and circulation, Semillas began publishing detailed journals and academic papers on all issues agricultural. The organisation now forms part of the regional network, Red Semillas Libres, which encourages “seed independence” in farming communities.
Besides the national implications of Resolution 9.70, there are also the effects on farmers of the free-trade agreements between Colombia and the US, Canada and the European Union. Vélez says seeds are restricted “intellectual property” under the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (Upov91), revised at the 1991 Geneva Convention.
Vélez points out that US President Barack Obama approved a free-trade agreement between the US and Colombia on condition Colombia ratified the law which enforces Upov91 in Colombia.
“We basically imprisoned our agro-diversity,” states Vélez. “By privatising our seeds, we began eroding our agricultural autonomy.”
If government controls the use of seeds, it controls what is planted, and what we end up eating. For Vélez, Colombia’s farming predicament is the result of laws having been pushed through which have benefited large agro-industrial complexes at the expense of traditional farmers.
He cites the collapse of the cotton industry in Tolima once farmers were forced to buy GM seeds from Monsanto. In 2008, Tolima lost 50-to-75% of its cotton production when farmers converted to GMOs, representing millions in lost revenue. Had farmers refused to buy Monsanto seeds and continued planting their native “criolla” ones, Colombia’s cotton industry would not have faced certain death. A similar agricultural disaster unravelled in the department of Cordoba.
Monsanto was fined a meagre US$300,000 by the ICA for the damage it caused to the nation’s cotton farmers.
Challenging the practices of the monopolies that govern much of Colombia’s agriculture is part of Semillas’s work. “We should control which seeds are introduced to the country and can harm local ones. We shouldn’t be persecuting the seeds, which are native to our soil.”
Vélez believes Colombians are staring at the “tip of the iceberg” of an impending food crisis, unless drastic measures are implemented to protect agricultural diversity.
“It’s no longer possible for a dairy farm to make ends meet with three cows. Unless there are profound structural changes to current development models, we will be totally dependent on monopolies for food,” affirms Vélez.
The debate over what constitutes a “certified” seed and its commercial uses has been high on the political agenda since the recent strikes and protests. For Vélez, only the hard work of small farmers can guarantee Colombians will have locally-grown food on their tables in the years to come. He says 70% of all the maize cultivated in the country still comes from small, traditional farms. With high numbers for beans, yucca and other perishables, he points to the success of grassroots initiatives by indigenous farmers to keep their arable land free of GMOs.
Seeds have been sacred to the many peoples who have inhabited the rain-forests and mountains of the Andes. In a country rich in bio-diversity, agrarian leaders such as Vélez are intent on defending that which is natural at any expense, because disease and famine don’t respect borders.
Richard Emblin is editorial director of the City Paper, Bogota’s English-language newspaper
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