Monsanto: Monsanto, creator of the popular herbicide Roundup, is an agro-chemical multinational headquartered in St-Louis, Missouri. Canadian farmers have been using Roundup on their fields because of its ability to effectively kill all unwanted weeds. Monsanto has also developed 90% of the genetically engineered crops currently grown around the world. One of them is the controversial Roundup Ready canola, a seed completely immune to Roundup. This technology has allowed farmers to spray the Roundup herbicide over a planted field of GE canola and kill all of the unwanted weeds without affecting their canola crops.

Because of Monsanto’s intellectual property rights over their Roundup Ready canola’s DNA, farmers have to enter a contract with Monsanto, obligating them to buy new seeds from the multinational on a yearly basis. Farmers also have to agree to let Monsanto inspect their fields and give up the right to make use of the age-old practice of saving their seeds year to year, relinquishing control of their seed supply to the biotech giant.

Percy Schmeiser: A former mayor of the town of Bruno, Saskatchewan, and a former MLA, Percy Schmeiser is a 72 year old farmer who has been growing canola and developing his own varieties for over 40 years. Though he never purchased seeds from Monsanto, over 320 hectares of his land is now contaminated with Monsanto’s Roundup Ready canola.

The case made its way to court in August 1998. Monsanto filed suit against Schmeiser, initially claiming that he illegally obtained their Roundup Ready canola seeds from one or more of their licensed users to plant his 1997 crops. Monsanto later withdrew their claims as they were unable to substantiate them but they pressed on with the charges that Schmeiser had infringed on their intellectual property rights.

Though the Trial court never established that Schmeiser knowingly planted Monsanto’s Roundup Ready canola, the Bruno farmer was found guilty of patent infringement. The Trial Court judge concluded that the mere presence of Roundup Ready canola in Schmeiser’s field was enough to constitute an infringement and awarded the entire crop to Monsanto. The Federal Court of appeal upheld the Trial Judge’s ruling.

Schmeiser subsequently applied for leave before the Supreme Court of Canada, which was granted to him. A tentative date of January 20, 2004 has been set for his hearing.

• Contrary to popular belief, Schmeiser was never found guilty of intentionally planting Monsanto’s canola. Neither the Trial Court, nor the Court of Appeal found that Schmeiser did anything to cause the initial presence of the Roundup-resistant plants on his fields. Seed for the 1998 crop (the only one found to infringe) came from the 1997 crop.
  
  
• The uncontradicted evidence of Schmeiser is that he did not spray Roundup on his 1998 canola crop. In order to establish that Schmeiser benefited from the genetically engineered canola, he would have had to spray it with Roundup. He did not. The Trial Judge did not say whether he believed Schmeiser on that point but he concluded that spraying with Roundup was not relevant in establishing a patent infringement.
  
  
• Neither the Trial Judge nor the Court of Appeal found that Schmeiser segregated seed that he knew contained the gene in order to grow a pure Roundup Ready crop and reap the benefits. Segregating the Roundup Ready crop from the rest would have been the logical thing to do had he indeed gone through the trouble of stealing the seed as Monsanto first alleged.

The patenting of seeds:
It is our position that Monsanto should not be given the right to patent a seed because of the following:

• Seeds are a lifeform and the intrinsic value of life, in all of its biological forms and manifestations, precedes its utility and commercial value, and therefore must be respected and safeguarded by all political, commercial and social institutions.
  
  
• Life in all of its biological forms and manifestations, exists in nature and, therefore, must not be claimed as intellectual property even if purified and synthesized in the laboratory. It must not be claimed as intellectual property even if purified and synthesized in the laboratory.

The implied liability for farmers:
By assigning responsibility to Schmeiser for the contamination of his field without establishing that he knowingly planted Monsanto’s canola, the lower courts basically infered that farmers ought to be able to control nature and prevent cross-pollination, wind blown seeds, and other weather phenomenons.

The right to save seeds:
Given the newly established liabilities with genetic contamination, farmers will no longer be able to save their seeds for fear of prosecution. The right to sue has been granted to Monsanto, which they are now using at their own discretion.

Contamination:
The judgement against Schmeiser has, in effect, cleared Monsanto of all responsibility for the rampant contamination problems that Western farmers are experiencing with Roundup Ready Canola. As more and more international markets are closing their doors to GE canola, it is imperative that farmers be able to preserve the integrity of their crop, be it conventional or organic. A significant portion of the canola grown in Canada is used for export markets. Unless Monsanto is made accountable for the contamination problem, more and more farmers will be faced with serious economic repercussions as they won’t be able to sell their crops.