A major region of Peru has banned genetically modified varieties of a crop that has been grown there for thou-sands of years and which helped to fuel the ancient Inca empire. The Cusco regional government’s Order 010 is intended to protect the genetic diversity of native potato varieties. It forbids the sale, cultivation, use and transport of GM potatoes as well as other native food crops.

The potato originated in the highlands of South America. Peru and its Andean neighbours are the crop’s centre of diversity – with more than 4,000 distinct varieties that farmers have developed over generations. The head of the regional government’s environ-mental office, Abel Caballero, proposed the ban “in recognition of the historical, cultural, social and economic importance of the potato and other native crops to the Cusco Region.” Many of the more than 1.2 million people in the Cusco region are small-scale farmers for whom the potato is the most important crop.

The Order was passed in response to proposals submitted by a network of local potato-farming communities and Asociacion ANDES, an indigenous nongovernmental organisation based in Cusco, in collaboration with the sustainable agriculture, biodiversity and livelihoods program at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).

IIED’s Michel Pimbert said: “With this decision to keep GM crops out of one of the world’s most diverse centres of potato and other Andean crops, the regional government of Cusco has acted wisely and with courage. Responding to citizens’ concerns, it has put issues of food security, human well-being and the environment first and foremost at a time when most national governments persist in their failure to implement inter-national agreements to protect the environment and human rights. This, and a growing number of other examples throughout the world, suggests that much can be done by working with local governments that are not captive to national elites and transnational corporations.”

– International Institute for Environment and Development, UK, via GENET-news, 18/7/07