Peru is the first country in the Americas to ban genetically modified foods, putting its food policy closer to that of Europe, than the United States or many of its South American neighbors.
Even though Peru is the birthplace of the crop, it¹s difficult to find anything other than hard, pale Roma tomatoes in supermarkets, and Schiaffino says that worried him.
³They¹re a big monoculture, which is why people usually end up using [genetically modified organisms] GMOs. Because when you have monocultures, the crops end up getting diseases, and you have to look for these extreme ways to fix them,² he says.Peru was the cradle of the Inca Empire, and today it¹s home to many crops indigenous to the Americas. It has 400 varieties of potato alone, and a geography that allows farmers to grow almost anything.
It's also the only country in the Americas to put a 10-year ban on genetically modified food, with a law that was first introduced in 2011, and went into effect at the end of last year. Its basic intention, say Schiaffino and others, is to protect Peru¹s biodiversity, as well as the practices that have kept it intact for so long.