A Canadian farmer must pay Monsanto for the genetically modified crops found growing in his fields, even if the seeds blew there from neighbouring fields and he never intended to grow them in the first place, a federal court ruled last week.
鈥淏asically, the judge is saying that it doesn鈥檛 matter how it got into your field, it鈥檚 Monsanto鈥檚 property. But how does a farmer know if he鈥檚 got a genetically altered seed that belongs to Monsanto?鈥� asks the farmer, Percy Schmeiser of Bruno, Saskatchewan.
The decision is an important one for Monsanto, which says it has to stop farmers stealing its property. Farmers in Canada and the US must sign agreements with Monsanto saying they will buy new GM seed each year instead of saving seeds from the previous year鈥檚 harvest.
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Others are dismayed. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 an incomprehensible decision, reflecting an ignorance of basic reproductive plant biology and agronomic practices. I鈥檓 completely at a loss to imagine what the judge was thinking,鈥� says Ann Clark, a plant biologist at the University of Guelph in Ontario.
Passing truck?
Investigators from Monsanto found the company鈥檚 glyphosate-resistant oilseed rape, or canola, growing in Schmeiser鈥檚 fields in 1998. Schmeiser says seeds probably blew off of a passing truck into one field in 1997.
After spraying a ditch for weeds and noticing some canola survived, Schmeiser then sprayed about three adjoining acres with glyphosate, killing off all but the resistant rapeseed. He says these GM seeds from these plants must have been accidentally mixed up with the seeds he planted in 1998.
Judge W. Andrew MacKay said he wasn鈥檛 convinced by this explanation, noting that 90 per cent of the rapeseed in Schmeiser鈥檚 fields was glyphosate-resistant . But even if the explanation is true, he said, it was Schmeiser鈥檚 duty to destroy the rapeseed once he realised it was a GM strain. MacKay rejected Schmeiser鈥檚 claim that Monsanto was at fault for failing to stop the crop spreading.
Back payment
Schmeiser says he had no reason to steal the rapeseed, since he did not usually apply glyphosate to his crop. But MacKay ruled it didn鈥檛 matter if Schmeiser made use of the GM plant鈥檚 glyphosate-resistance or not.
He was infringing Monsanto鈥檚 licence simply by leaving the crop to grow in his fields. The judge ordered Schmeiser to pay Monsanto CAN$15,450 (拢6930) for the plants that grew in his fields.
Trish Jordan, a spokeswoman for Monsanto Canada in Winnipeg, says the company tries to prevent the accidental spread of its resistant canola. Monsanto will not sue farmers whose fields are accidentally contaminated, she says, only those it suspects of growing the crop intentionally.
Schmeiser says he may appeal. He is also pursuing a counter suit against Monsanto, claiming contamination by the GM rapeseed forced him to destroy a variety that he had been developing for the last 50 years.