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PepsiCo has contracts with more than 24,000 farmers for potato and rice crisps.
(Photo: Sam Panthaky / AFP / Getty Images)
After PepsiCo sued a group of small farmers in the state of Gujarat, in western India, reports indicate that the company has agreed to settle – for the price of $ 143,000 by farmer. According to PepsiCo, the farmers had obtained seeds that did not belong to them: the company's patented FL2027 seed potatoes, known worldwide as an essential ingredient in Lay's chips.
A coalition of farmers' unions, activists, non-governmental organizations and lawyers has criticized the complaint in a letter to the Indian Ministry of Agriculture this week, saying that "we are in the middle of the day. it targeted farmers "victims of intimidation from seed and food companies". India today reports. At the same time, PepsiCo claims to have secured exclusive rights to grow potatoes in India in 2016. It has allowed hundreds of farmers to grow its potato, but these rights must be approved. "Join us or grow other potatoes," a spokesperson for PepsiCo told CNN.
Although the lawsuit has enraged critics in India, who defend the right of farmers to grow their own crops, similar lawsuits have been going on in the United States for decades. Three US companies now dominate the global seed market – and plant patents have helped make it happen.
Global domination of seeds
Under a 1970 Property Act, plant breeders in the United States – including individuals, universities, and corporations patent new varieties of seeds and tubers, as well as certain genes, characteristics and production methods of plant varieties. Patents, recognized worldwide, give the holder the exclusive legal rights to reproduce and market this variety for 20 years. (In some cases, farmers can grow and preserve patented seeds in the future, if they do not sell them.)
According to the Agricultural Marketing Service of the US Department of Agriculture, this protection is intended to promote "the development of new varieties that can increase crop yield and productivity". The Plant Variety Protection Office database contains 398 varieties of potatoes alone (with names such as Red Snapper, Pomerelle Sunset and Emma), each certified by the USDA.
But when biotech companies started to patent genetically modified seeds that were resistant to insects and pesticides, these innovations led to lawsuits that further strengthened seed companies' monopolies. The Monsanto agro-technology giant (now part of Bayer) has been suing US farmers for seed patents for decades. According to a statement by the company, Monsanto has initiated 147 lawsuits against US farmers in the United States since 1997. Only nine of them have been tried, but Monsanto has been successful.
Effects on small farmers
While the courts have always defended the intellectual property rights of companies, advocacy groups argue for these legal protections, associated with the increasingly consolidated seed sector, which controls 60% of the market is hurting small farmers.
An analysis conducted in 2005 by the environmental group Center for Food Safety revealed that during the company's peak litigation, Monsanto had obtained up to $ 3 million in lawsuits for patent. Some of the farmers who ended up in court did not intentionally plant Monsanto's biotechnology seeds, but were still held accountable for those who had drifted into their fields.
Experts agree that seeds industry patents have made it harder and more expensive for farmers to buy and keep basic seeds. "[S]Synergies between strengthening intellectual property protection and consolidation have further strengthened the dominance of large corporations at the expense of a freely competitive industry, "said Philip Howard, a professor at Michigan State University in a 2015 report on intellectual property in the seed sector.
Contract farming, contract seeds
In India, the world's second largest potato producer, PepsiCo has contracted more than 24,000 farmers to grow potatoes and rice for its potato chips. In return, these farmers are protected against risks. Although the contract farming system is considered to be mutually beneficial, the company has also been criticized for its depletion of India's water resources in the context of the growing agricultural crisis in the country.
It also limits what farmers can do with seeds: in the United States, for example, those who want to grow Monsanto's patented seeds must sign agreements that require farmers to buy them instead of keeping them.
And yet, these are the farmers that PepsiCo claims to be defending in court. In one In a statement to Business Insider, the company said the lawsuit was "a last resort to preserve the broader interests of thousands of farmers participating in its collaborative potato cropping program."
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