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Potato farmers cry foul as PepsiCo sues them
Just days after multi-billion dollar conglomerate PepsiCo sued four Gujarati farmers, asking them to pay ₹1.05 crore each as damages for 'infringing its rights' by growing the potato variety used in its Lays chips, farmers groups have launched a campaign calling for government intervention.
The case is coming up for hearing in an Ahmedabad court on Friday.
Warning that the case could set a precedent for other crops, farmers groups are pointing out that the law allows them to grow and sell any variety of crop or even seed as long as they don't sell branded seed of registered varieties.
The farmers want the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Authority (PPV&FRA) to make a submission in court on their behalf and fund legal costs through the National Gene Fund.
When asked for a response, a PepsiCo India spokesperson said: "Given the issue is sub judice, it would not be proper to offer detailed comments."
T.K. Nagarathna, the PPV&FRA registrar who has jurisdiction for vegetable crops, said that the case had come to the notice of the Authority and it was looking into it. "We can take action based on the court order," she told The Hindu.
"These farmers are small, holding around 3-4 acres on an average, and had grown a potato crop from farm-saved seed after they accessed the potato seed locally in 2018," according to a letter sent to the PPV&FRA by farmers groups. They alleged that PepsiCo hired a private detective agency to pose as potential buyers and take secret video footage, and collect samples from farmers' fields without disclosing its real intent. PepsiCo then filed suit, the letter said. It added that at least nine farmers in three districts have been charged since 2018.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 04 2019, @10:34AM (4 children)
It seems like most of the time the farmers don't even want this crappy patented seed, but it is like a weed that pushes out the other strains. Is that the case here?
(Score: 2) by Arik on Saturday May 04 2019, @12:52PM (2 children)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 04 2019, @01:58PM (1 child)
True, as very few varieties of the humble spud breed true from seed, especially those 'special' ones peddled by the likes of the villains of this piece (though it *is* possible to grow them from seed, been a long time since I did so, I do remember some of the results being 'interesting', my father, who served his apprenticeship as a gardener, did warn me the results would be a bit weird, and possibly a bit more toxic than the parent plants, Solanaceaes being what they are and all that..).
To be fair, from reading the articles about this they don't make it very clear if it's seed potato or seed they're talking about...a case of one ignorant journalist seeing 'seed potato' and reading/correcting it as 'potato seed' and then the rest of the flock of journalistic parrots mindlessly joining in with the refrain..
(Score: 4, Informative) by hemocyanin on Saturday May 04 2019, @04:37PM
The article referenced in this post is much clearer: https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=31409&page=1&cid=838787#commentwrap [soylentnews.org]
I'm guessing that Pepsi probably faced some unexpected regulatory hurdles if it pushed the lawsuits.
Anyway, if you are inclined to give mod points, give them to the person who found a decent article on the topic, not me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 05 2019, @01:40AM
India is quite a large market... if they ALL stop buying Pepsico products for a while...