Posted on 10-4-2002

Percy v Monsanto - Jury Still Out
By KRISTA FOSS (Globe And Mail)

Monsanto did not know what it was getting into when it tried to teach Percy
Schmeiser a lesson.

Two years after losing a patent dispute with the biotechnology giant, the
71-year-old grain farmer from Bruno, Sask., has taken his story -- and his
message about farmers' rights -- from Brazil to Bangladesh, from Australia
to Austria. He has at least as many international gigs as boy band 'N Sync
this year, yet the jet lag is not slowing him down. In the fall, he visited
South Africa. In March, he was in Thailand. This week he kicks off a tour
that will take him through Europe. Then he's off to Seattle, followed by a
spin through South America. "It has been pretty hectic," he said recently.

Farmers groups, environmentalists and United Nations policymakers all want
to hear Mr. Schmeiser's tale of being taken to court over the kind of
canola found growing in his fields four years ago. Some will pay his air
fare and expenses to have him tell it in person (he doesn't charge speaking
fees.) And the next time this grandfather of 14 will be back home in
Saskatchewan is mid-May, when a Saskatoon judge is to hear his appeal of
the March, 2000, ruling that made him an international folk hero. "Monsanto
couldn't have picked a worse person to get into a fight with," said Pat
Mooney, the executive director of the Winnipeg-based technology watchdog
group ETC, who has seen Mr. Schmeiser speak at international forums. "He's
articulate and emotional, and he always creates a stir when he tells his
story."

Born and raised in Bruno, a farming community 90 kilometres northeast of
Saskatoon, Mr. Schmeiser has grown canola, wheat and legumes on 1,400 acres
of land for the last 47 years. In the last two years, it has become
increasingly difficult for him to maintain his packed travel itinerary and
his grain farm. This year, he will rent out most of his land to neighbours
and cultivate just 300 acres himself with the help of family.

In 1998, Monsanto informed him he was infringing on their patent for a
herbicide-resistant strain of canola, called Roundup Ready, because they
had found it growing in his fields. He had not paid the necessary fees to
cultivate it. Mr. Schmeiser argued that the seed had blown into his field
or had been dumped there by accident, and that made Monsanto's patent
invalid. Monsanto wanted to settle out of court, but Mr. Schmeiser refused.
A federal court judge ruled in March, 2000, that it was unlikely the
patented canola ended up growing in Mr. Schmeiser's fields by accident and
that he must have knowingly harvested the patented strain without informing
Monsanto. "What the judgment said was it doesn't matter how Monsanto seeds
get into your fields; it's their property. All the farmers' rights go out
the window," Mr. Schmeiser said.

The case cost Mr. Schmeiser and his wife Louise $200,000 in legal fees. To
pay, they mortgaged their land and gutted their retirement savings. But the
judge also awarded costs to Monsanto, which this fall asked for nearly
$1-million. "Sometimes we wake up in the middle of the night and ask
ourselves, 'What did we get ourselves into? We could lose everything we
worked our whole lives for,' " Mr. Schmeiser said. But rather than sit at
home and fret, Mr. Schmeiser has turned himself into a global poster boy
for the rights of small farmers. Through his Web site
www.percyschmeiser.com which touts his story as "the classic David vs
Goliath struggle," he has raised tens of thousands of dollars to pay for
next month's appeal. The site sports a photograph of him holding the
Mahatma Gandhi award, presented to him in Delhi in 2000 or his work
promoting non-violent improvement of humanity.

Meanwhile, Monsanto Canada is resigned to losing the public-relations
battle, as long as it wins in court. "We knew going into this that this was
a no-win situation for us in the public's eye. It has all the classic
things that people can take a spin on," said Trish Jordan, Monsanto Canada
spokeswoman. "The bottom line is that this case for us is about protecting
intellectual property. There are 30,000 farmers who use this technology in
Canada and pay to use it." Ms. Jordan said the company is not at all
worried about Mr. Schmeiser's appeal and she noted he has not paid "one
cent" of the costs owed to Monsanto. But high-profile lawsuits against
Monsanto are not likely to end with Mr. Schmeiser's appeal. Earlier this
year, the Saskatchewan Organic Directorate launched a class-action suit
against Monsanto and Aventis claiming that pollen drift and contamination
from their genetically modified strains of canola have made it impossible
for Saskatchewan farmers to grow certifiably organic canola.

Mr. Schmeiser has also registered a lawsuit against Monsanto for damages
related to alleged contamination of his fields by Roundup Ready canola, a
suit he hasn't yet had time to pursue. "My wife said we won't live long
enough to see the end of it," he said.