Percy Schmeiser
From Free net encyclopedia
Percy Schmeiser (born January 5 1931) is a farmer from Bruno, Saskatchewan, Canada. He specializes in breeding and growing canola. He became an international symbol and spokesperson for independent farmers' rights and the regulation of transgenic crops during his protracted legal battle with agrichemical giant Monsanto.
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Monsanto vs Schmeiser
Main article at Monsanto Canada Inc. v. Schmeiser
In 1997, Monsanto's genetically modified Roundup Ready Canola plants were found in Percy Schmeiser's field. In spring 1998, before Schmeiser planted his 1998 crop, he was informed that Monsanto believed that he had grown Roundup Ready canola in 1997. In the summer of 1998 the canola in Schmeiser's fields was found to be Roundup Ready canola. After this, Monsanto sued Schmeiser for patent infringement. For the next several years, the case travelled through the Canadian court system. Meanwhile, Schmeiser became an international symbol and spokesperson for the anti-GE movement. He accepted speaking engagements, and received donations for his defense fund, from around the world. Ultimately, a Supreme Court ruling found in favor of Monsanto. Often misinterpreted, the decision was relatively limited. The publicity around the case focussed on whether Monsanto would be held responsible for GE crop contamination. This issue was, in explicit fact, not considered by the courts. The patent infringement finding was based solely on the determination that Schmeiser had recognized the crosscontamination, and knowingly went on to collect the crossbred seed, and replant and harvest it the next year. No punitive damages were awarded to Monsanto, and the issue of responsibility for GE seed was left up in the air.
On August 11 1999, Schmeiser sued Monsanto for ten million dollars for "libel, trespass, and contamination of his fields with Roundup Ready Canola".
Bruno vs Schmeiser
Schmeiser has also been involved in a dispute with the town of Bruno, which passed a resolution in 1996 prohibiting him from physically entering the town office after they were directed to do so by the Occupational Health and Safety Branch of the provincial Labour Department. In 2003 Schmeiser was acclaimed to town council, but was still prohibited from entering the building. A court ruling ordered the town council to permit him to enter the building to attend council meetings. Related to this dispute, Schmeiser has filed suit for libel against the town's mayor and deputy mayor.
Other accomplishments
Schmeiser served as mayor of the town of Bruno from 1966 to 1983, and also as member of the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly for the Watrous constituency from 1967 to 1971. Percy Schmeiser married Louise Schmeiser in October of 1952 and they have celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. In October of 2000, Schmeiser received the Mahatma Gandhi Award for working for the good of mankind in a non-violent way.
Quotes
- "Now, at 70, I am involved with this fight with Monsanto. I stood up to them because that a farmer should never give up the right to use his own seed. I felt very strongly about it because my grandparents came here from Europe in late 1890s and early 1900s to open this land, to be free, and to grow what they wanted to grow. Now we are going back to a feudal system that they left because they were not free—basically we are becoming serfs of the land." — Percy Schmeiser in an interview with Acres USA
- "The appellants in this case [Schmeiser] actively cultivated canola containing the patented invention as part of their business operations. Mr. Schmeiser complained that the original plants came onto his land without his intervention. However, he did not at all explain why he sprayed Roundup to isolate the Roundup Ready plants he found on his land; why he then harvested the plants and segregated the seeds, saved them, and kept them for seed; why he next planted them; and why, through this husbandry, he ended up with 1030 acres [4.2 km²] of Roundup Ready Canola which would otherwise have cost him $15,000." — the Supreme Court of Canada in paragraph 87 of the ruling