Salvadoran Farmers Don't Want American Genetically Modified Seeds, U.S. Bending To Pressure

By Meagan Clark - Salvadoran farmers are uniting to protest a stipulation in a $277 million U.S. aid package to El Salvador that would indirectly require them to purchase American multinational agricultural company Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) seeds rather than source seeds locally.

Monsanto, which maintains close ties with the U.S. government, is known for using “suicide seeds” or “terminator technology,” genetically-engineered and patented seeds that produce crops that once harvested, reproduce sterile seeds. That forces farmers to buy seeds from Monsanto annually to keep harvesting their crops.  

“Transnational companies have been known to provide expired seeds that they weren’t able to distribute elsewhere,” Juan Joaquin Luna Vides, a 45-year-old farmer and head of a Salvadoran community development organization called Diversified Production at the Mangrove Association, told Truthout.org.

“We would like the U.S. embassy and the misinformed media outlets [that are pressuring the Salvadoran government to change their procurement procedure] to know more about the reality of national producers and recognize the food sovereignty of the country,” he added.

Monsanto controls seed sectors in much of the world, especially India, where tens of thousands of farmers have lost their livelihoods. Many farmers, like a group in Brazil, have filed lawsuits against Monsanto.

Over the past two months, the U.S. government has been pressuring the Salvadoran government to sign a five-year compact with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a U.S. foreign aid agency. The signing agreement allegedly requires El Salvador to purchase GM seeds from Monsanto.

According to MCC, it is fueling economic growth in El Salvador through investments in people and infrastructure and improved energy supply.

The Confederation of Federations of Salvadoran Agrarian Reform (CONFRAS), which represents 131 farming cooperatives in the country and nearly 6,000 rural farmers, said in May: “We are threatened because the U.S. is pressuring the government of El Salvador so that its seed is not purchased from local families struggling to escape poverty, but transnational businesses.”

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In response to the local resistance to Monsanto seeds, the U.S. government may be compromising on the compact. On July 6, the U.S. Office of the Trade Representative (USTR) said the issue is unresolved, but on Tuesday, the MCC and USTR indicated their discussions with the Salvadoran government were productive and approaching completion, Politico reported.