With
Juan Guaidó’s parallel government attempting to take power with
the backing of the U.S., it is telling that the top political donors
of those in the U.S. most fervently pushing regime change in
Venezuela have close ties to Monsanto and major financial stakes in
Bayer.
by
Whitney Webb
Part
2 - U.S.-Backed Venezuelan opposition seeks to reverse Chavista seed
law and GMO ban
In 2004,
then-president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, surprised many when he
announced the cancellation of Monsanto’s plans to plant 500,000
acres of Venezuelan agricultural land in genetically modified (GM)
soybeans.
The
cancellation of Monsanto’s Venezuela contract led to what became an
ad hoc ban on all GM seeds in the entire country, a move that was
praised by local farmer groups and environmental activists. In
contrast to anti-GM movements that have sprung up in other countries,
Venezuela’s resistance to GM crops was based more on concerns about
the country’s food sovereignty and protecting the livelihoods of
farmers.
Although
the ban has failed to keep GM products out of Venezuela — as
Venezuela has long imported a majority of its food, much of it
originating in countries that are among the world’s largest
producers of genetically modified foods — one clear effect has
been preventing companies like Monsanto and other major agrochemical
and seed companies from gaining any significant foothold in the
Venezuelan market.
In 2013,
a new seed law was nearly passed that would have allowed GM seeds to
be sold in Venezuela through a legal loophole. That law, which was
authored by a member of the Chavista United Socialist Party of
Venezuela (PSUV), was widely protested by farmers, indigenous
activists, environmentalists, and eco-socialist groups, which led to
the law’s transformation into what has been nicknamed the “People’s
Seed Law.” That law, passed in 2015, went even farther than the
original 2004 ban by banning not just GM seeds but several toxic
agrochemicals, while also strengthening heirloom seed varieties
through the creation of the National Seed Institute.
Soon
after the new seed law was passed in 2015, the U.S.-backed Venezuelan
opposition led by the Roundtable of Democratic Unity (MUD) — a
group comprised of numerous U.S.-funded political parties, including
Guaidó’s Popular Will — took control of the country’s National
Assembly. Until Venezuela’s Supreme Court dissolved the assembly in
2017, the MUD-legislature attempted to repeal the seed law on several
occasions. Those in favor of the repeal called the seed bill
“anti-scientific” and damaging to the economy.
Despite
the 2017 Supreme Court decision, the National Assembly has continued
to meet, but the body holds no real power in the current Venezuelan
government. However, if the current government is overthrown and
Guaidó — the “interim president” who is also president of the
dissolved National Assembly — comes to power, it seems almost
certain that the “People’s Seed Law” will be one of the first
pieces of legislation on the chopping block.
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