…..Initially, in 1998, Monsanto took the Schmeisers to court for patent infringement, claiming that they were growing the biotech giant’s patented GMO canola. It didn’t matter, according to Canadian patent law, that Monsanto’s GMO canola, freshly cut on a nearby farmer’s land, had drifted onto the couple’s farm and that they had no control over the ensuing GMO canola plants sprouting there. Nor did it matter that Percy and Louise had spent 50 years growing non-GMO canola crops on their land, working as seed developers and researching disease control. According to Canadian patent law, Monsanto could take the couple’s entire crop from them or make them destroy it. According to patent law, Monsanto now owned the crop.
For 10 years, the Schmeisers were in and out of court with Monsanto, fighting to keep their farmland, farm equipment and home as well as fending off a million-dollar lawsuit Monsanto filed against them claiming punitive damages. According to Percy, during the course of these legal battles, he and his wife were subjected to threats by the biotech giant and asked to sign release forms stating that they could never take Monsanto to court, no matter how much the company’s GMO plants contaminated their farm. These release forms also stated that—if the Schmeisers signed them—they would lose their freedom of speech, they would not be permitted to talk about the terms of their settlement with Monsanto. ……………
About Post Author
“I noticed that by the time they returned to their cabins there was a change in their feelings. The great responsibility of being free, of having charge of themselves, of having to think and plan for themselves and their children, seemed to take possession of them. It was very much like suddenly turning a youth of ten or twelve years out into the world to provide for himself. In a few hours the great questions with which the AngloSaxon race had been grappling for centuries had been thrown upon these people to be solved. These were the questions of a home, a living, the rearing of children, education, citizenship, and the establishment and support of churches. Was it any wonder that within a few hours the wild rejoicing ceased and a feeling of deep gloom seemed to pervade the slave quarters? To some it seemed that, now that they were in actual possession of it, freedom was a more serious thing than they had expected to find it. Some of the slaves were seventy or eighty years old; their best days were gone. They had no strength with which to earn a living in a strange place and among strange people, even if they had been sure where to find a new place of abode. To this class the problem seemed especially hard. Besides, deep down in their hearts there was a strange and peculiar attachment to “old Master” and “old Missus,” and to their children, which they found it hard to think of breaking off. With these they had spent in some cases nearly a half century, and it was no light thing to think of parting. Gradually, one by one, stealthily at first, the older slaves began to wander from the slave quarters back to the “big house” to have a whispered conversation with their former owners as to the future. “
