Seed-Shaped Monopoly: A round Business

Roland Javier Correa Manrique – c.c: 1014305603.

The GMOs are organisms that have been genetically modified, allowing the alteration of its
genes to achieve a specific goal with said organisms; for instance, increasing the resistance
against certain plagues or viruses; increasing the tolerance to herbicides; improve its
nutritional value, etc. According to Agro-Bio [1], the use of these organisms in Colombia,
specifically corn and cotton crops, brought about approximately 209 million liters of water
saved between 2003 and 2015; moreover, these organisms, due to their features, offer a
bigger production on a smaller terrain, this would have a positive impact on the environment,
because these organisms, owing to their high resistance to herbicides and insecticides, would
represent a consumption decrease of Diesel and CO2 emissions on the atmosphere.

The latter organisms could be considered as seeds, which could be used by producers of any
kind of scale and can obtain the previously mentioned benefits, that is to say, these organism
have certain advantages in comparison to conventional non-modified seeds, for instance, the
production cost involved in the cultivation, maturation and harvest would be lowered,
improving the production level for an ever-growing population, thus, countries should
support investigations covering this type of seeds; its implication; advantages and
disadvantages, in order to reach more sustainable processes.

Big companies such as Monsanto, Chemchina and Dupont lead the production of genetically
modified seeds worldwide nowadays. Due to these seeds being the result of a large
investigation, is within the reach of the latter companies to patent these seeds in order to
protect the intellectual property of its investigations during a certain time span (generally 20
years). This has entailed lots of implications worldwide for several decades, given that these
patents could potentially turn into a huge business, because if there´s complicity between
states and companies, the result would be an extensive monopoly where the sale of seeds
would be exclusively from companies producing genetically modified seeds, forcing
producers of any related product to buy these seeds; furthermore the fact that a seed could be
considered a living being and patenting it despite being the result of a large investigation
should be considered, and could bring ethical implications.

Since 1986 it is possible to find examples that illustrate the complicity of a state with big
companies to generate a large monopoly on the sale and commercialization of seeds; among
which stand out the deep connections between Monsanto and the U.S government, involving
big regulatory organizations such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the United States Department of Agriculture
(USDA). According to Smith [2], these connections allowed the government to grant
privileges to Monsanto, enabling its products to skip over numerous regulations that could
demonstrate those seeds to not be safe, cutting short the inspection time and speeding up the
establishment of the business that Monsanto looked for, allowing the acquisition of rival
companies and the fast insert to the market, starting the formation of a large monopoly.

The expansion of this monopoly has been on a large scale and has arrived to countries like
Colombia. On 2010 the Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario (ICA) published the Resolution
970 and according to the diary El Espectador [3], on an interview with Teresita Beltrán, CEO
of ICA at the time, assured that said resolution regulated, over the national territory, the
exclusive usage of certified seeds and applied restrictions on the creole seeds, this is because
these could only be cultivated on terrain of 5 hectares or less and its harvest being destined
for personal consumption, that is to say, its commercialization was forbidden, moreover on
2012 the free trade agreement with the United States was put into effect, which required the
Colombian government to adopt the UPOV agreement of 1991, which implies the following,
according to Arbeláez [4]:
“El Convenio UPOV de 1991 extiende el contenido de los derechos del obtentor hasta el "producto
de la cosecha" o el "fabricado" a partir de ella, restringiendo al mínimo la ancestral costumbre
campesina de seleccionar, limpiar, conservar, resembrar, intercambiar y vender semillas en el
mercado local”

The above have several implications, due to the Resolution 970 regulate the exclusive
commercial usage of certified seeds on national territory, which for the most part are
transgenic, causing its intellectual property to be owned by breeder companies, and in turn,
the UPOV/91 agreement extends the breeder rights to the crops of those who use these seeds.

Therefore, it can be stated that, thanks to the latter mentioned agreements and resolutions,
that the intellectual property of the seeds was being put above the rights of the farmers, being
forced to use the genetically modified seeds that commercialized just a few companies, which
indicates that at that time a monopoly on the sale and marketing of seeds was being generated
in Colombia.

The Resolution 970 and the free trade agreement (TLC) brought about several consequences
in Colombia, due to huge inequalities being imposed on the Colombian countryside when the
mentioned measures implemented. For example the massive confiscation and throwing away
of many tons of food of the farmers of the Campoalegre, Huila by ICA. According to the
magazine Semana [5], officials of ICA in the company of the ESMAD seized and throw away
more than 62 tons of rice, which belonged to group of farmers, on the municipal garbage
dump claiming that those harvests were illegal, since they came from certified seeds that have
been replanted.

This was the event that ratified the hunt that the ICA was carrying out against the piracy and
illegality of non-certified seeds under the Resolution 970, resulting in the confiscation and
elimination of more than 4.271 tons of rice, potatoes, corn, wheat, cotton and beans seeds,
etc. This showed how the monopoly on the sale of seeds was arising with the complicity of
the Colombian state, due to this resolution being published to regulate seeds in Colombia and
improve the phytosanitary level on the country; which in reality made evidence of the
obligation of the Colombian state towards the farmers to buy the certified seeds, since farmers
live off the commercialization of its harvest and the usage of creole seeds impede possibility
of sale for the farmers.

All of this caused repudiation from the Colombian agro towards the measures implemented
by the government and coupled with the high value of the supplies at the time, gave origin to
the national agrarian strike of 2013. Owing to this agrarian strike the farmers expressed to
the government their nonconformities with the implemented measures, allowing the
negotiation between the two parties. The government finally took into account the demands
of the farmers and published revision of the Resolution 970 so that the use and
commercialization of native seed weren´t a crime anymore.

Finally, it was possible to put in the light the seed business in Colombia at the hands of
breeder companies and the national government. It must be taken into account that 15% of
the seed market in 2013 belonged to multinational companies, but the fact that confirms the
beginning of the seed monopoly in Colombia was that force had to be used to instill fear in
the farmers so that they would buy certified seeds instead of doing an integral accompaniment
to the farmers so that the transition from native seeds to certified seeds would be much more
understandable and easy. It could also possible to manage native seed certification days to
enable farmers to grow these seeds without any trouble, but this did not happen, and this
showed how easily a monopoly can expand if there is complicity between a company and a
state, in this case, the Colombian state.

References:

[1] AgroBio. (2019). Transgénicos: ¿Cuáles son sus beneficios? Taken from:
https://www.agrobio.org/beneficios-cultivos-geneticamente-modifcados-colombia/

[2] Smith, J. M. (2003). Seeds of deception: Exposing corporate and government lies
about the safety of genetically engineered food. Green books.

[3] El espectador. (2013). ‘La 970 no le prohíbe a los agricultores resembrar su semilla
nativa’. Taken from: https://www.elespectador.com/noticias/nacional/970-no-le-prohibe-
los-agricultores-resembrar-su-semilla-articulo-443719
[4] Uribe Arbeláez, M. Derechos de los agricultores y Convenio UPOV/91. Revista La
Propiedad Inmaterial n.° 21, Universidad Externado de Colombia, enero-junio 2016, pp.
139-171.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18601/16571959.n21.06.

[5] Revista Semana. (2013). La Historia detrás del 970. Taken from:
https://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/la-historia-detras-del-970/355078-3