Nov 07, 2020, 20:50 pm
Percy Schmeiser, whose family tilled the rich soil of his native Saskatchewan for more than a century, was taken to court for seed piracy in a case that generated headlines around the world.
The Saskatchewan farmer, who has died at 89, became a global figure in the movement against genetically modified foods. He was sued by Monsanto Canada Inc. in 1979 for violating the agribusiness giant’s patent for Roundup Ready canola seeds.
A decade-long legal struggle turned the farmer and his wife, Louise, into folk heroes in what was portrayed as a David-and-Goliath battle. The couple lost a landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision by 5-4 in 2004, though they did not have to pay damages. Monsanto had sought $400,000 for unauthorized use of their flagship product.
The farming couple was sued after private investigators hired by the company discovered the patented canola, resistant to the company’s herbicide, was growing on the family farm. Mr. Schmeiser claimed the seeds had blown onto his land from a neighboring farm, or a passing truck.
The Supreme Court decision acknowledged the company’s plant genes and modified cells could be patented.
In 2008, the Schmeisers declared a moral victory after receiving a check for $660 from the company to settle a small-claims court case they initiated. They had billed Monsanto for the cost of having to remove the patented canola from what they described as contaminated fields three years earlier.
The dispute convinced Mr. Schmeiser to grow oats and wheat instead of canola. He eventually leased most of his acreage to other farmers.
The case made the couple a cause célèbre for their defiance in the face of a large, multinational corporation.
Earlier this month, a fictional movie about the case, titled, simply, Percy, was released, starring Christopher Walken as a curmudgeonly prairie farmer. The family praised the film, though they insisted the patriarch was not so much ill-tempered as principled.
The couple was celebrated for their role in defying the multinational’s aggressive marketing, as well as for promoting biodiversity and sustainability. In 2000, Mr. Schmeiser traveled to India to receive a Mahatma Gandhi Award. He and his wife were also honored by the Council of Canadians, the Canadian Health Food Association, and the Right Livelihood Foundation.
He died of Parkinson’s disease on October 13.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/a...-the-anti/
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Short Documentary:
Percy Schmeiser - David Versus Monsanto
Imagine that a storm blows across your garden and that now, without your knowledge and without your consent, foreign and genetically-manipulated seeds are in your planted fields which you have nourished and maintained for many years. A few days later, representatives of a multi-national corporate group pay you a visit at home, demand that you surrender your plants - and simultaneously file a criminal complaint against you, resulting in a fine for the illegal use of patented and genetically-manipulated seeds.
What's more, the court finds for the corporate group!
Yet you fight back...
This is the true experience of the family of Percy and Louise Schmeiser in Canada, winners of the Alternative Nobel Prize, who fought Monsanto.
Farmers around the world are dealing with this bitter reality. Nearly three-fourths of genetically-manipulated plants harvested worldwide originate from Monsanto labs.
Monsanto calls dismal inventions such as DDT, PCB, and Agent Orange its own. In its effort to gain absolute hegemony over plants - from the field all the way to the consumer's plate - Monsanto knows no qualms. The farmers Troy Rush, David Runyon and Marc Loisell also learned the hard way what it means to be confronted with Monsanto's methods of doing business, as did thousands of other farmers worldwide.
Farmers around the world who stand againt GMOs fight for the continuation of their livelihood, for the right to freedom of speech, and the right to their property. Yet above all, they are campaigning for the future of their children and grandchildren so that they, too, will have a chance to grow up in a world without genetically-manipulated food.
This film is reassuring, reassuring to all who fear that as an individual, no one would have any power to confront policymakers, large corporations or the business world.
"David vs. Monsanto" proves the opposite.
The Saskatchewan farmer, who has died at 89, became a global figure in the movement against genetically modified foods. He was sued by Monsanto Canada Inc. in 1979 for violating the agribusiness giant’s patent for Roundup Ready canola seeds.
A decade-long legal struggle turned the farmer and his wife, Louise, into folk heroes in what was portrayed as a David-and-Goliath battle. The couple lost a landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision by 5-4 in 2004, though they did not have to pay damages. Monsanto had sought $400,000 for unauthorized use of their flagship product.
The farming couple was sued after private investigators hired by the company discovered the patented canola, resistant to the company’s herbicide, was growing on the family farm. Mr. Schmeiser claimed the seeds had blown onto his land from a neighboring farm, or a passing truck.
The Supreme Court decision acknowledged the company’s plant genes and modified cells could be patented.
In 2008, the Schmeisers declared a moral victory after receiving a check for $660 from the company to settle a small-claims court case they initiated. They had billed Monsanto for the cost of having to remove the patented canola from what they described as contaminated fields three years earlier.
The dispute convinced Mr. Schmeiser to grow oats and wheat instead of canola. He eventually leased most of his acreage to other farmers.
The case made the couple a cause célèbre for their defiance in the face of a large, multinational corporation.
Earlier this month, a fictional movie about the case, titled, simply, Percy, was released, starring Christopher Walken as a curmudgeonly prairie farmer. The family praised the film, though they insisted the patriarch was not so much ill-tempered as principled.
Quote:“We wouldn’t wish what we experienced on anyone,” Mr. Schmeiser said in a statement broadcast by the CBC.
“It was very stressful. It split our community and divided farmers.”
The couple was celebrated for their role in defying the multinational’s aggressive marketing, as well as for promoting biodiversity and sustainability. In 2000, Mr. Schmeiser traveled to India to receive a Mahatma Gandhi Award. He and his wife were also honored by the Council of Canadians, the Canadian Health Food Association, and the Right Livelihood Foundation.
He died of Parkinson’s disease on October 13.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/a...-the-anti/
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Short Documentary:
Percy Schmeiser - David Versus Monsanto
Imagine that a storm blows across your garden and that now, without your knowledge and without your consent, foreign and genetically-manipulated seeds are in your planted fields which you have nourished and maintained for many years. A few days later, representatives of a multi-national corporate group pay you a visit at home, demand that you surrender your plants - and simultaneously file a criminal complaint against you, resulting in a fine for the illegal use of patented and genetically-manipulated seeds.
What's more, the court finds for the corporate group!
Yet you fight back...
This is the true experience of the family of Percy and Louise Schmeiser in Canada, winners of the Alternative Nobel Prize, who fought Monsanto.
Farmers around the world are dealing with this bitter reality. Nearly three-fourths of genetically-manipulated plants harvested worldwide originate from Monsanto labs.
Monsanto calls dismal inventions such as DDT, PCB, and Agent Orange its own. In its effort to gain absolute hegemony over plants - from the field all the way to the consumer's plate - Monsanto knows no qualms. The farmers Troy Rush, David Runyon and Marc Loisell also learned the hard way what it means to be confronted with Monsanto's methods of doing business, as did thousands of other farmers worldwide.
Farmers around the world who stand againt GMOs fight for the continuation of their livelihood, for the right to freedom of speech, and the right to their property. Yet above all, they are campaigning for the future of their children and grandchildren so that they, too, will have a chance to grow up in a world without genetically-manipulated food.
This film is reassuring, reassuring to all who fear that as an individual, no one would have any power to confront policymakers, large corporations or the business world.
"David vs. Monsanto" proves the opposite.