I would encourage anybody interested in the implications of gene patenting and genetically modified organisms to listen to the broadcast recording of a talk given by farmer and citizen activist Percy Schmeiser. In it, Schmeiser details his multi-year legal battle with corporate giant Monsanto over contamination of his canola fields with Monsanto’s Round Up Ready GMO canola.
This legal case, in which Monsanto racked up over $2 million in legal fees, was a trial run to see just how far they could go in the court system on violation of patent rights by farmers who unwittingly encounter GMO products in their fields. Schmeiser’s account will boil your blood, so please, have a listen, our future depends on it.
One response to “Monsanto v. Percy Schmeiser”
[…] As reported by the Public Patent Foundation, four of Monsanto’s key patents related to genetically modified (GM) crops have been rejected by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. After dozens of cases against North American farmers, the most well-known being Monsanto v Percy Schmeiser, the US Patent Office has finally shown some sense, and sided for the age-old, agrarian tradition of seed-saving. […]