Canadian farmer warns of GM ‘plague’

A CANADIAN farmer who was involved in a lengthy legal battle with the bio-tech giant Monsanto, has warned Ireland to beware of what he described as the ‘new plague’ of genetically modified foods.

Percy Schmeiser, now in his 70s, urged Ireland to stay GM-free, saying there was still time to learn from the experience of other countries.

Currently spending much of his time speaking to farmers and environmentalists, he addressed a meeting of the Growing Awareness group, in Clonakilty, Co Cork, last Wednesday.

Recently, the EPA gave permission to a German company, BASF, to conduct a five-year field trial on potatoes engineered for resistance to potato blight on a one-hectare site at Summerhill, Co Meath.

Mr Schmeiser, meanwhile, said there was no such thing as co-existence between natural plants and genetically modified plants, as was proven by what had happened to rape seed and soya bean, in Canada.

“You’re talking about total destruction of biodiversity and heirloom seeds,” he claimed.

“The seed will spread as it is not possible to contain pollen flow and seeds are also blown on the wind. It can be blown off trucks and farm equipment.”

Mr Schmeiser told his audience that when such seed was used, yields dropped and the nutritional value of genetically altered crops was only about half that of organic crops.

“Genetically altered seeds also lead to a massive increase in the use of chemicals and the super weeds that develop are more powerful and toxic than anything we have ever seen before,” he went on.

“Such seeds are also more difficult to control and spread quickly to urban areas, golf courses, cemeteries and other open spaces.”

Mr Schmeiser’s case was billed as a classic David-and-Goliath confrontation between a Saskatchewan family farmer and a corporate giant.

It was seen by some as a case of the rights of a farmer to continue a traditional way of farming, while others saw it a blatant attempt to take advantage of years of research and development of a better product, without paying for it.

For seven years, Mr Schmeiser argued that seeds from Monsanto’s patented genetically modified canola (rapeseed) landed on his 1,400-acre farm near Bruno, east of Saskatoon, by accident.

Monsanto had altered the plant’s genes to make the canola resistant to Roundup, a Monsanto weed killer. Monsanto patented the gene and the process of inserting it into the seed.

Farmers usually use seeds from one year’s crop to plant the next year’s crop. But when they buy Roundup Ready canola from Monsanto, they have to agree to buy new seed every year. They must also allow their lands to be inspected by Monsanto.

Monsanto says that’s the only way they can recoup the money they’ve spent designing a better plant and the only way they can fund future research.

Mr Schmeiser, however, maintained big companies must not be allowed ‘totally dominate’ the seed business.

“There’s a huge loss of rights to a farmer when his land becomes contaminated against his wishes and the corporate interests take over. The patent gives the corporate worlds more rights than the farmer has,” he said.

“Farmers should be up in arms, but a lot of them don’t realise what’s going on. Farmers could lose their rights overnight to their seeds and plants.”

He argued that a company can’t patent a plant, relying heavily on a previous case involving the question of whether higher life forms can be patented.

Canada’s highest court sided with Monsanto — in a five to four ruling. The court, however, did agree with Mr Schmeiser that the plant is a higher life form and cannot be patented.

In the end, Mr Schmeiser called the legal battle a victory, in part because the court ruled that he would not have to pay Monsanto’s legal costs.

“We did not expect this to go all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada,” he said after the ruling. “We were fighting for the fundamental right of the farmer to save his seed and use it year after year.”