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.
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