Forty indigenous leaders from potato growing communities in the Andes met in Cuzco, Peru on March 18, just prior to the start of the eighth conference on the Convention on Biological Diversity, to sign a "strongly worded" letter encouraging Swiss biotech firm Syngenta International to discontinue its patent on a strain of genetically modified potatoes, Inter Press Service reports.
The Syngenta potato is deliberately designed to sprout only if treated with a chemical made by the company. This "terminator technology" is a form of Genetic Use Restriction Technologies (GURT) that restrict the ability of plants to reproduce by rendering their seeds sterile. GURTS were a major topic of discussion at the convention, which took place in Curitaba, Brazil, from March 20–31. In 2000, the convention established a moratorium on the commercial use and testing of terminator technology, but Syngenta’s potato exploits a weak spot in the moratorium’s definitions, allowing them to patent the vegetable.
The Peruvian farmers’ letter, which was signed on behalf of the Indigenous Coalition Against Biopiracy in the Andes, called for Syngenta to stop its development of the potato and to publicly state that it would cease developing any future terminator technology. The letter also illuminated the danger of increased corporate control over the food supply, and urged corporations to have more consideration for indigenous knowledge and traditions.
"Our peoples have cultivated potato as a multi-purpose crop for millennia. We feel greatly disrespected by corporations who, by making a single genetic alteration to a plant, claim private ownership to it as their invention, despite the fact that these plants are the result of thousands of years of careful selection and breeding by indigenous peoples and local communities around the world," the coalition wrote.
In addition to concerns over intellectual property rights, indigenous farmers fear that the introduction of genetically engineered crops will foster a dependence on multinational corporations because they will be forced to purchase new seeds and special fertilizers each year, rather than using their natural and traditional methods of seed sharing and harvesting.
Even farmers who do not plant terminator seeds will be at risk of cross-pollination that could threaten the diversity of the 3,000 existing naturally cultivated varieties of potato. In some circumstances, if accidental cross-pollination occurred, farmers could even be held legally liable for the unauthorized use of a now-patented potato species.
Alejandro Argumedo, Associate Director of ANDES, told Cultural Survival that while the group’s letter had generated a positive response from both international media and indigenous groups, it is "just the initial step in a process which we expect to last long, and one that won’t be so polite."
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