KAMLOOPS – Percy Schmeiser, the Saskatchewan farmer who wound up in court with Monsanto when the pesticide and biotechnology giant found its genetically engineered canola plant growing on Schmeiser’s farm in 1997, will speak at TRU Feb. 15 at 7 pm in the Alumni Theatre located in the university’s Clock Tower.
Monsanto filed suit in 1998, and in 2004, the Supreme Court of Canada made biotechnology history with a 5-4 ruling that Schmeiser had violated a patent Monsanto Canada Inc. held on genes of genetically engineered canola seeds.
Mr. Schmeiser, 74, has been farming since 1947, and he and his wife are known on the Prairies as seed developers in canola and as seed savers. Throughout the proceedings, he insisted that the seed somehow blew onto his fields from passing trucks or from neighbouring farms, which had paid Monsanto Canada Inc. the licensing fee of $15 an acre to use it.
“The whole issue of GMOs can be divided into three main categories: the first category is the issue of the property rights of farmers versus the intellectual property rights of multinationals like Monsanto. The second issue is the health and danger to our food with the introduction of GMOs. The third issue is the environment,” said Schmeiser, who received the Mahatma Gandhi Award while he was in India in October 2000.
“When we were sued my wife and I immediately realized that 50 years of research and development on our pure canola seed that was suitable and adaptable to certain conditions on the Prairies, climatic and soil conditions and especially diseases that we had in canola, could now be contaminated. We said to Monsanto at the time, ‘Look, if you have any of your GMOs in our pure canola seed you are liable for the destruction of our property and our pure seed.’ So, we stood up to them,” he added.
“With the introduction of GMOs there is no such thing as containment. Once you introduce a life form, a life-giving form, into the environment there is no calling back. You cannot contain the wind. You cannot contain the seed movement through cross-pollination – birds, bees, and other animals. You cannot contain it and it will spread as it has on the Prairies. As a farmer for half a century, I know that once you introduce a GMO gene into the environment, into any seed or plant, it’s a dominant gene. It will eventually take over whatever species of plants it gets into. You can’t have GMOs in the country and have organic or conventional farmers,” he said.
Schmeiser’s appearance at TRU was facilitated with support from the TRU faculty association and the Council of Canadians.
For more information, please contact Nancy Bepple (TRU) at 250-371-5982.
Media note:
Mr. Schmeiser will only be available for phone interviews until Feb. 1 at 306-369-2520.
Mr. Schmeiser will be available for face-to-face media interviews in Kamloops on Thursday, Feb. 15 from 9 am to 1 pm.
For background information, go to: www.percyschmeiser.com
