A peanut paste called Plumpy’nut, invented by a French company called Nutriset, has become the subject of a patent dispute. Plumpy’nut has had a strong positive effect in treating malnourished children. It has provided an alternative to hospitalisation, resulting in significantly decreased costs of treatment. Plumpy’nut has become the standard “ready to use therapeutic food” for use by humanitarian agencies in famine situations.
US companies are now contesting Nutriset’s patent monopoly. They say that they can produce the product at a cheaper price, and that it is wrong to use a patent to protect a life-saving food product. However, the peanuts which they would use to produce the product would be grown in the US. US food aid policy, which is heavily influenced by agricultural lobbies, require that 99% of food aid money be spent on American-grown surpluses.
Accordingly, there is a fine line between the US approach to food aid and dumping. Nutriset has set up a network of Plumpy’nut producers in Niger, Malawi, Kenya and other countries, and these would be driven out of business by US-subsidised imports. Nutriset says that they want poor countries to be able to produce the nutrients they need in a sustainable way. They also say that no child has ever been denied access to the product as a result of the patent.