• Colombia boasts an enormous variety of maize cultivars that guarantee food sovereignty for local communities.
• According to farmers and indigenous peoples, these are threatened by contamination from genetically modified maize introduced into the country in 2007.
• Following the municipality of San Lorenzo declaring itself GMO-free, a bill now aims to ban GMOs across the whole of Colombia.

In Colombia, a coalition of farmers, indigenous peoples and environmentalists is fighting against the use of GMO crops, particularly maize. While the agribusiness lobby claims that genetically modified plants offer higher yields and reduce the use of pesticides (advantages that numerous field studies have debunked), doubts are growing within rural communities — on one hand about who truly benefits, and on the other about the threat posed to native varieties.

As noted on the website of the Fondazione Slow Food, whose Presidio works in the department of Nariño to promote and valorise ten local varieties of maize, Colombia holds one of the most significant genetic and cultural heritages in the world when it comes to this cereal. Indigenous communities have preserved and cultivated native maize within their production systems, and it has come to play a fundamental role in the food security and sovereignty of the Colombian population. Commercially grown GMO maize, on the other hand, poses a threat to biodiversity.

Since the introduction of GMO cotton in 2002 and GMO maize in 2007, the Colombian Agricultural Institute has been accused of prioritising commercial agriculture over local seed sovereignty, and of failing to consult indigenous and peasant communities on key decisions. The primary concern is that GMO seeds could cross-pollinate with native varieties, altering their characteristics and threatening the ability to preserve them.

From the GMO-free municipality of San Lorenzo to a bill to ban them across the whole of Colombia

An article in the Guardian recounts how farmers in San Lorenzo, within the department of Nariño, have been guardians of seeds selected across generations: in 2018, thanks to a joint initiative between the local community and the municipal authority, the territory declared itself GMO-free. The farmers of San Lorenzo are now backing a bill, currently under discussion in the Colombian parliament's Chamber of Representatives, that would ban GMO seeds across the entire country.

The proposal was put forward by a coalition of rural, indigenous and environmental organisations, led by Grupo Semillas, a Colombian non-profit that promotes sustainable agriculture, and calls for an amendment to Article 81 of the Colombian Constitution, banning the use, import and sale of genetically modified seeds at the national level. As declared by Germán Vélez, director of Grupo Semillas, the reform aims to "recognise native seeds as collective heritage and halt the genetic erosion threatening the country's food sovereignty".

The government appears to support the reform, framing it as part of a broader strategy for the country's food sovereignty. As early as 2023, the Colombian Constitutional Court ruled in favour of a group of indigenous organisations that had brought a lawsuit against the government demanding protection for traditional seeds from genetic contamination.

Standing in the way of the bill is the Colombian Association of Seeds and Biotechnology (Acosemillas), which had already filed a lawsuit against the municipality of San Lorenzo and maintains that GMO crops can coexist with traditional varieties, since Colombian regulations provide for biosafety protocols. However, research from the Universidad de los Andes has found that pollen from genetically modified maize can travel up to 700 metres — more than double the 300-metre safety buffer required by the Colombian Agricultural Institute.