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PepsiCo offers to settle with Indian potato

farmers after backlash

Farmers sued for allegedly growing potatoes used in Lay’s crisps without permission

Benjamin Parkin, Delhi

Sat 27 Apr 2019 00.06 AEST First published on Fri 26 Apr 2019 17.40 AEST

PepsiCo’s Lay’s crisps. The role of foreign companies in producing and selling food in India is a

hotly contested issue. Photograph: Tim Gainey/Alamy

PepsiCo has faced a backlash after suing four Indian farmers who allegedly grew a patented

strain of potatoes used in its Lay’s crisps without the company’s permission.

The company, which originally sought about $150,000 (£116,000) in damages from each of

the farmers, arguing they broke the law by sourcing and dealing the potatoes, offered to settle

“amicably” when the case went to court in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad on Friday.

The case sparked outrage from farmers and others concerned that PepsiCo was using its clout

to interfere with the country’s food supply. The role of foreign companies in producing and

selling food in India is a hotly contested issue, particularly when concerning genetically

modified (GM) crops.

“It’s a question of India’s seed sovereignty, food sovereignty and country sovereignty,” said

Kapil Shah, an activist who is defending the farmers. “It’s spreading panic among the

farmers.”

A number of farmers’ groups in India have banded together to protest against the court

action. Ambubhai Patel, the vice-president of a farmers’ association, Bharatiya Kisan Sangh,

said they were lobbying the government to back the accused farmers’ favour and punish the

“harassment” of other farmers.

Patel’s group is linked to the prime minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya

Janata party (BJP), which has increased its scrutiny of foreign companies in the run-up to

national elections ending in late May.

“Potato-growing farmers have nothing to worry [about] and we can’t allow such

intimidation,” Patel told local media. “We will fight against it in court as well as on the

streets if needed.”

PepsiCo said the farmers who grew its strain of potatoes without permission were hurting the

interests of the many people working with the company to produce them for its Lay’s crisps.

It supplies those farmers with seeds and subsequently buys back the potatoes.

“PepsiCo is India’s largest process-grade potato buyer and amongst the first companies to

work with thousands of local farmers to grow a specific protected variety of potatoes for it,” a

spokesperson said in a statement.

The spokesperson later added that the company was compelled to take legal action as a “last

resort” and was “deeply committed to resolving the matter”.

Companies such as PepsiCo have previously faced criticism for their use of natural resources,

facing a boycott in one drought-hit Indian state in 2017 for allegedly using excessive amounts

of water to manufacture soft drinks.

Memories of the shortage were high on the minds of some commentators this week. “Let us

hope PepsiCo won’t sue people for using the same groundwater used in Pepsi,” Ravi Nair, a

journalist, wrote on Twitter.