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Farmer plays David to Monsanto's Goliath

Broadcast Date: May 21, 2004

The Supreme Court of Canada has just handed out a landmark decision on genetic modification. In what the CBC's Brooks Decillia describes as a real life David and Goliath battle, the legal quagmire pitting biotech giant Monsanto against Saskatchewan farmer Percy Schmeiser has ended in a victory for Goliath. In a five to four decision, Canada's highest court ruled that Monsanto had the right to control the use of its Roundup Ready canola because it has a patent on one of its genes.

It all began in 1997 when Monsanto found its genetically modified canola, known as Roundup Ready, growing illegally in Percy Schmeiser's farm. Schmeiser maintained the GM seeds blew onto his field from neighbouring farms by accident. When Schmeiser refused to pay for the right to use Monsanto's GM canola, the company sued. The Supreme Court upheld Monsanto's patent rights, but it also denied Monsanto any profits earned by Percy Schmeiser from his GM canola.

The ruling hasn't stopped farmers and environmental groups from mounting campaigns around the world against patents on genetically modified products, on the grounds that no commercial enterprise can have the rights to a living organism.

Farmer plays David to Monsanto's Goliath

• Monsanto had argued that no matter how Percy Schmeiser obtained the Roundup Ready canola, the farmer should have signed a "technology use agreement" and paid the licensing fee of $15 an acre as other farmers had. Under the licensing agreement, farmers are not allowed to save any seed for replanting and must buy new seed each year from Monsanto.

• Canola is the largest modified crop grown in Canada.
• Percy Schmeiser became an international symbol for opponents of GM foods. Schmeiser's plight was held up by environmentalists as far away as Holland and Japan as evidence of the biotech industry's ruthless pursuit of profit.

• Schmeiser also had his detractors. Some questioned Schmeiser's story of Monsanto's canola accidentally blowing into his field. Pointing to the concentration and the extent of Roundup Ready canola growing on Schmeiser's field, almost 1,000 acres, his neighbours as well as scientists accused him of knowingly and deliberately planting the patented crop.

• In January 2000, delegates from 138 countries reached a historic agreement in Montreal on an International Biosafety Protocol on genetically modified food. The protocol allows countries to ban GM food imports if they feel there is insufficient evidence that they are safe. Producer countries, chiefly the United States and Canada, must mark shipments that "may contain" GM materials.

Farmer plays David to Monsanto's Goliath

Medium: Radio

Program: The World At Six

Broadcast Date: May 21, 2004

Guest(s): Trish Jordan, Janet Lambert, Andrea Pearl, Percy Schmeiser

Host: Barbara Smith
Reporter: Brooks Decillia

Duration: 2:55

Last updated:
July 20, 2009