The Red de Semillas Libres: Contesting Biohegemony in Colombia

The Red de Semillas Libres (Network of Free Seeds) in Colombia contests the expansion of, and dominant narratives on, agricultural biotechnology and intellectual property rights (IPRs) protections on seed – or what has been called ‘biohegemony’. We argue that despite its challenges, the Network contests ‘biohegemony’ through lawsuits, supporting ‘seed sovereignty’, and reframing the often taken-for-granted discourse on local seed varieties as raw material and a resource to be ‘discovered’, ‘invented’ and commodified by industry and Western-based technoscience. Based on ethnographic research, we extend the concept of biohegemony to include struggle and contestation by examining how the Network pursues seed sovereignty.