Canadian Organic Farmers
Sue Monsanto & Aventis

U.S. News & World Report
January 28, 2002

Bad seeds in court
BY: By Thomas Hayden

When genetically modified plants contaminate their crops, organic farmers
fight big biotech

Imagine you're in Denver. Now drive north for 20 hours straight. Welcome to
Maymont, Saskatchewan, a place sort of like North Dakota--only colder. Dale
Beaudoin, 55, runs an organic farm here on the Canadian prairie. "It's
fairly nice, I guess, when it isn't dry," he says. Dry, however, is a good
word for his farm's cash flow. Beaudoin got premium prices for keeping his
crops free of pesticides and other controversial trappings of modern
agriculture. But his 1999 canola harvest tested positive for genetically
modified (GM) strains, and its value dropped by a third. So earlier this
month Beaudoin joined some 1,000 other farmers in a suit against GM canola
makers Monsanto and Aventis, alleging the firms' seeds have contaminated
organic fields. The farmers want restitution for lost profits and to block
the introduction of GM wheat.

Are genetically engineered crops--which contain genes from other species
that let plants produce their own pesticides, among other things--actually
dangerous? Perhaps more to balance sheets and to the environment than to
people. StarLink GM corn, for instance, was at the center of an uproar two
years ago that prompted 300 food products to be yanked from grocery stores.
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study later found no evidence
that StarLink actually made anyone sick. But in November 2001, scientists
reported finding genes from GM corn in Mexican "criollo maize," a source of
modern corn varieties. Plant breeders worry such cross-pollination could
flood out genetic diversity, making it impossible to breed new strains. And
along with contamination from GM seeds blowing into organic fields, farmers
in western Canada fear GM-enhanced "superweeds"--problem plants they can't
kill with herbicides. "You really can't contain these genes," says Allison
Snow, a plant ecologist at Ohio State University. With biotech companies
working on plants that produce drugs and industrial chemicals, she says, "we
have to ask if we want those genes getting around."

Weeding out genes. The seed developers tend to argue that individual farmers
who buy their GM seeds are responsible for any adverse effects on their
neighbors. But a recent Monsanto lawsuit might come back to haunt the
biotech companies, says University of Saskatchewan law Prof. Martin
Phillipson. In 1998, Monsanto accused Percy Schmeiser, a Saskatchewan
farmer, of growing its herbicide-ready canola without permission. The
company won a lawsuit by asserting that it retains intellectual property
rights over its seed in the field. "They've established that they have a lot
of rights," says Phillipson, "but no one's ever tested whether they also
have responsibilities."

Beaudoin and his fellow farmers' new lawsuit may force that test. If it
succeeds, the suit would throw a wheat-field-size wrench into the biotech
giants' plans and encourage similar GM-blocking legal action elsewhere.
Beaudoin says the farmers are scrambling for donations to fund their cause
against deep-pocketed corporations, but he doesn't see any options. "Losing
canola was tough," he says. "But if they ever got GM wheat on us, it would
pretty near be the end."