Red de semillas libres en Colombia: Contesting the neoliberal seed regime

• In Event: Neoliberalismo y transformaciones agroalimentarias en Latinoamérica. El impacto de los transgénicos II

Abstract

Food scholars have suggested that genetic engineering and its regulation are central to an emergent neoliberal food regime (Pechlaner and Otero 2008) – or the institutional structures, norms and practices of food trade, governance and political economy (Friedmann 1987, McMichael 2009). Based on fieldwork in Colombia, we explore both institutional and grassroots challenges to the expansion of -and dominant narratives on- biotechnology and intellectual property rights on seeds under the neoliberal food regime. We look at the successes and difficulties of the Red de semillas libres of Colombia (RSL) –made up of activist and grassroots organizations- in gaining political and institutional support for their struggle to protect traditional varieties and reject GMOs.
We first analyze the recent legal conflicts over the expansion of IPRs on seeds. As a condition of the Free Trade Agreement with the United States, Colombia is required to adopt UPOV 1991. Yet after a recent demand by the RSL, the Constitutional Court declared that the Law 1518 of 2012 (which approved UPOV 1991) was unenforceable because it did not involve consultation with indigenous and afroColombian communities. Second, we analyze the RSL’s strategies and counter-discourses to increase public support and media attention for its Campaña por las semillas libres en Colombia in the context of the recent agrarian protests that have paralyzed the country. The campaign draws on a concept of food sovereignty in its effort to challenge the expansion of IPRs on seeds and GMOs and promote the in situ conservation of traditional seeds.

Authors

• Laura M Gutierrez Escobar, University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill

• Elizabeth Fitting, Dalhousie University