...posted on SANET
Saskatchewan Farmer Battles Monsanto, Sues Them Back
Vancouver Sun, Page B01, Saturday, August 14, 1999 --
Saskatchewan
farmer
battles agro-chemical giant: Percy Schmeiser is being sued for
having
patented canola seeds growing on his land. He says he's done
nothing
wrong,
and is fighting back, by Dave Margoshes
Regina -- Percy Schmeiser was mad as hell, and decided he
wasn't going
to
take it. Schmeiser has been growing canola -- the yellow-
blossomed
oilseed that used to be known as rapeseed -- for 40 years, and he
knows
his
stuff. He's been experimenting, developing his own varieties, using
his
own
seed and generally prospering with canola, reaping the benefits
derived
from growing an increasingly popular crop. So when Monsanto, the
giant
multinational agro-chemical company that is at the forefront of
developing
genetically modified foods, accused him of patent infringement and
demanded
restitution for its seeds, his pride was hurt. He chose to fight rather
than roll over and take it. This week, following a failed mediation
effort
and fed up with Monsanto's "high-handed and arrogant actions,"
Schmeiser
had his lawyer launch a $10-million plus countersuit against the
company,
claiming defamation of character, trespass and ecological havoc.
Schmeiser's not convinced the seed in his fields last year was
Monsanto's,
and argues that, if it was, it got there through courtesy of wind or
cross-pollination, forces of nature farmers know lots about but, he
complains, Monsanto seems to have forgotten. No way, says
Monsanto, and
it
has filed an affidavit from an independent agricultural expert to back
up
its claim that Schmeiser was in unlawful possession of its seeds.
Craig
evans, Monsanto canada's general manager for biotechnology and
seeds,
defended the company's actions this week, saying, "what it boils
down to
is, can farmers protect their investment? If one farmer's getting a
significant break over others -- no matter how he comes by it -- well,
you
can imagine how that makes the others feel." Evans said
Monsanto is
convinced Schmeiser is not an innocent victim. "if we thought that,
we
wouldn't have taken this as far as we have." The david and goliath
case,
which surfaced a year ago, was set to go to court last fall, but
goliath
blinked and, instead, Schmeiser and Monsanto attended a one-day
court-appointed mediation session earlier this week. Neither side
will
say
exactly what happened, but the case is headed back to court and,
barring
any further blinking, will be before a judge sometime next spring --
probably around the time Schmeiser is seeding his fields with
canola.
He
farms about 570 hectares at bruno, about 90 kilometres east of
Saskatoon
--
with about two thirds of it planted to canola -- and also runs a farm
implement business. He planted canola again this year -- but from
brand
new
seed, and definitely not Monsanto's. Schmeiser, a 68-year-old
former
reeve
and councillor of the local rural municipality, and a liberal mla in the
government of ross thatcher in the late '60s, is a respected
member of
the
community, not the sort of fellow one would expect to steal
someone
else's
seeds -- especially when he's had so much success with his own.
But
that's
exactly what Monsanto has accused him of. Monsanto,
headquartered in
st.
Louis, makes the popular herbicide roundup. Farmers all over the
prairies
- -- Schmeiser among them -- spray it on their fields, whereupon it
kills
everything growing there. Then they plant. Using the controversial
alchemy
of genetic engineering, which has alarmed environmentalists and
consumers,
Monsanto has developed a canola seed completely immune to
roundup. That
means a farmer can spray the herbicide over a planted field, kill all
the
weeds growing there, but not hurt the crop -- as long as it comes
from
Monsanto's seed. The company sells the seed -- about half the
canola
planted in Saskatchewan this year comes from it -- but keeps the
rights
to
the dna itself. It means that, rather than save seeds from last year's
crop
to use this year, as many do -- and as Schmeiser traditionally
does --
farmers have to buy new seed from Monsanto every year. In order
to
protect its investment, Monsanto has been vigilant in rooting out
frugal
farmers who might be cheating and saving seed, or borrowing a bit
of
seed
from neighbours. Farmers buying Monsanto's seed must sign a
contract
promising to buy fresh seed every year. And they must let
Monsanto
inspect
their fields. The company also employs snitch lines and encourages
farmers
who are loyal customers to rat on their neighbours who might be
cheating
--
which, apparently, is how Schmeiser came to its attention. If this
sounds
heavy-handed, or overly big brotherish, lend an ear to Monsanto
official
randy christenson. "we've put years, years and years of research
and
time
into developing this technology," says christenson, a former
regional
director for Monsanto in western canada. "so for us to be able to
recoup
our investment, we have to be able to be paid for that." Monsanto
claims
its investigators found the company's patented dna in Schmeiser's
crops.
Since Schmeiser never bought any Monsanto seed, the company
sued him.
The
farmer was annoyed, to put it mildly. "i've been farming for 50
years,
and all of the sudden i have this," he told the vancouver sun. "it's
very
upsetting and nerve-wracking to have a multi-giant corporation come
after
you. I don't have the resources to fight this." Monsanto uses private
investigators to check out tips it receives on its snitch lines.
Investigators patrolling grid roads took crop samples from
Schmeiser's
fields to check for hijacked dna. Schmeiser calls these methods
"completely unethical" and accuses Monsanto of trespassing. "you
can
just
imagine what would happen if i went onto one of their fields and took
some
of their seed." Monsanto, he said, "wants control of everything."
His
countersuit against the company "is going to set a lot of
precedents,"
he
predicted this week. He figures Monsanto sued him in the first place
when
"they saw a farmer in western canada developing his own seed;
that must
have upset their apple cart." Now, he believes, he's going "to make
them
sit up and take notice. A message has to be sent to Monsanto that
they
can't keep on treating farmers this way. "once you let these
altered
genes into the environment, you can't take them back, they're there
forever." Monsanto doesn't apologize for its methods, which it
refers to
as
"audits." But it denies trespassing or infringing anyone's rights in
the
process. "yes, we do have a group that do audits, they do make
farm
visits, but they do it in a way that is extremely respectful to the
farmers," christenson says. "we never, never, go on their property,
never,
without their permission." Proving to the satisfaction of a judge
that
Schmeiser stole Monsanto's seed may be difficult -- but it could be
hard
for the farmer to prove his innocence too. The problem is, mother
nature
has been moving dna around for millions of years. It's called
evolution.
"it will blow in the wind," Schmeiser says. "you can't control it, you
can't just say, 'put a fence around it and say that's where it stops.' "
he also argues seeds or pollen could have been blown into his
fields off
farm equipment or from uncovered trucks passing by. But keith
downey,
an
agriculture canada scientist, says the evidence contained in an
affidavit
he produced on Monsanto's behalf indicates the seed in
Schmeiser's
fields
last year could only have been purloined. "i can't say exactly how it
got
there, but it's not the result of trucks passing, and there are no
other
Monsanto-seeded fields within five miles, so wind action and
cross-pollination didn't do it." Could Schmeiser be an innocent
victim
of
other forces of nature? "that's for the courts to decide," said
downey,
who also runs a private consulting company. But he doubts it. The
presence
of the Monsanto gene in Schmeiser's canola was "too consistent
to have
been
accidental." The Schmeiser case is not an isolated one. The
company
is
aware of 16 violations in canada, and has settled eight of them out
of
court, according to evans. The Schmeiser case has gone the
furthest,
downey
said in a telephone interview from his winnipeg office, "because he's
challenging us. But we need to stick to our principles. We're
fulfilling
our promise to other farmers." The krams are another
Saskatchewan farm
family that have butted heads with the giant company. Elizabeth
kram
complains that planes and a helicopter have buzzed the fields she
and
her
husband farm near raymore. "we are honestly disgusted with the
way
things
are going," kram says. "who put the canola in? It is the farmer. It
doesn't
belong to Monsanto or anybody else, and i don't see anybody
else's name
on
the titles of all the land we own. It's my husband and myself.
Nobody
else." As for Schmeiser, he vows to continue fighting. "i believe
what
is happening to farmers is wrong. And i'm fighting this not just for
myself, but for my children and my grandchildren. And for my farmer
friends. "my grandfather and my father homesteaded here. There
was no
such thing as chemical companies, or even seed companies. They
were free
and independent."
To date, Monsanto has at
> > least 475 cases
> > in the U.S., generated from over 1,800 leads.
> > More than 250 of
> > these cases are under investigation in at least
> > 20 states.
>
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