Hi Greg,

Since you have been following this story with interest, here's the
latest installment from today's Toronto Globe and Mail:

BREAKING NEWS POSTED AT 11:17 AM EST  Thursday, May. 8, 2003
www.globeandmail.com

Supreme Court to let farmer make his case

Ottawa _ The Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to sort out a
long-running legal battle between a Saskatchewan farmer and biotech
giant Monsanto over patent rights to herbicide-resistant canola.

The court, in a decision released without comment Thursday, agreed to
hear the case of Percy Schmeiser, who is challenging past rulings that
held him liable for over $170,000 in damages and legal costs.

At issue are Monsanto's patent rights to Roundup Ready canola, a
genetically modified strain resistant to powerful herbicides that would
normally kill the plants, widely used to produce cooking oil.

Monsanto charges farmers a fee of $15 an acre to use the seeds. Some
20,000 farmers across the country planted the seeds in 2000, with the
crops covering between 4.5 million and 5 million acres and accounting
for about 40 per cent of Canadian canola production.

Mr. Schmeiser, 72, who has farmed for 50 years near Bruno, Sask., was
sued by Monsanto for growing its seeds without permission.

The Federal Court trial division agreed with the company that its patent
rights had been violated and ordered Mr. Schmeiser to pay $19,000 in
damages and $153,000 in court costs.

The judgment was upheld by the Federal Court of Appeal, which continued
to hold him liable but rejected a claim by Monsanto to raise the damage
figure.

Mr. Schmeiser denies that he knowingly violated the patent. He contends
that the herbicide-resistant crop grown in his fields may have resulted
from seeds blowing off a passing truck or from pollination from nearby
fields where his neighbours were growing Roundup Ready canola.

The case has become a cause-c‚lŠbre in Western Canada and has attracted
attention in other countries, making him something of a folk hero among
farm and consumer activists who worry about the spread of genetically
modified crops and the economic clout of the companies that hold patents
for them.

No date has been set for the Supreme Court hearing.



Cheers,

YK Jim

... Butter is better than margarine. I trust cows more than chemists.
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