Percy Schmeiser: Canadian Farmer Fights Back

How can Monsanto get away with this? Do the patent laws

really give them these kinds of sweeping rights? And the other

provisions of their exclusive licensing sound like the kinds of

tactics that landed Microsoft in hot water with antitrust

regulators in the US.

The poor farmer in Canada has but one chance to defend what is right.

Percy Schmeiser is a common thief. Over 95% of his field tested positive for Roundup-Ready soy, and the nearest biotech field was over 5 miles away!

Tell it to the judge, Percy. You were BUSTED, and rightly so.

MR.SCHMEISER is a hero to us all. It is time for us to take the twisted logic of monstrous corporations and challenge them on all levels. Mr. Schmeiser's case should set a precedent to protect all farmers from genetically altered frankenfoods. We still have a few small farmers in Mendocino and are saving loads of local seed. We support Mr. Schmeiser's bravery, his truth and his search for justice. We will be triumphant. The whole world is rising up. Yippee!!!

According to this article, the judge ruled that how it got there

is no excuse. It seems that Chuck U Farley disagrees with the

judge in the case, because he disputes only Percy Schmeiser's

claim that the wind carried the mutant pollen into his field. Whereas,

the judge ruled that if Schmeiser knowingly OR unknowingly

profited from Monsanto's legal monopoly on mutant canola,

he must abide by their licensing terms and pay the same as any

other farmer who deliberately planted it.

The genetic contamination which affected Percy Schmeisser's crops has become so widespread, and the GM plants are so difficult to remove because they are resistant to the Roundup herbicide, that Monsanto is now offering to send crews to affected farms to hand-pull the intruding plants, which, weed-like, are interfering with crops other than canola.

In just a rew years, their "masterpiece" of genetic engineering has achieved the status of a pest.

Ironic, no?

Chuck Farley's email address apparently does not exist. So I'd not take his remarks too seriously. However, I've heard contradictory accounts of the Schmeiser case. I can't remember the source off hand, but one article I read says the judge ruled that the large amount of crops on Schmeiser's land showed it couldn't be accounted for by incidental cross-polination. In which case, it was probably the right ruling. Has anybody got the full scoop on this?

-Joel Hanson

Here's an update on Percy -- informative audio interview with him at Bioneers:

http://portland.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=37286&group=webcast