Did you hear? There’s a new movie coming out “Percy” starring Christopher Walken and Cristina Ricci. It is based on the real life case of Percy Schmeiser and his battle with Big Bad Ag. h/t @adrienneivey https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=BwgnXZ98AfI&app=desktop @MongrelMedia

This story captured the imagination of the public 20 years ago. It lives on – now in the cinema. It certainly has been a riveting part of my life and career history. It’s Canadian, set in my home province, and it is about agriculture. I’ve studied and I’ve written about the case.

The story is portrayed as a classic "David-and-Goliath” struggle between the small farmer and Monsanto. Schmeiser makes for a great protagonist. He is a seed-saving farmer; one who values his decades of work. Then he is accused by ‘Big Ag’ for unlawfully using their seeds.

Percy Schmeiser rose from obscurity in the Canadian prairies into an internationally renowned figure in the anti-GMO movement. https://www.terradaily.com/reports/Canadian_Farmer_On_Global_Crusade_Against_GM_Seeds_999.html

Schmeiser’s story, as he tells it, makes for a compelling movie plot. But let’s talk about the facts around this case...


WARNING: This is a LONG thread. It's a long story! But everything is sourced from publicly available records. I provide links to sources.

In the late 1990s, Monsanto Canada brought a suit against Schmeiser claiming he knowingly grew, harvested and replanted seeds of the company's genetically enhanced (and patent protected) "Roundup Ready" canola.

Schmeiser responded with a claim that if any Roundup Ready canola was grown on his land, it was the result of cross pollination from neighbors' fields or from seeds blowing off other trucks after the previous year's harvest.

A trial was held in June 2000 and the patent infringement suit was eventually settled in Monsanto’s favour by the Federal Court of Canada on March 29, 2001. See the Federal Court decision here: https://decisions.fct-cf.gc.ca/fc-cf/decisions/en/item/38991/index.do

The Court determined that Schmeiser “…knew or ought to have known the nature of the glyphosate-resistant seed he saved and planted”

The Federal Court’s ruling: “…on the balance of probabilities, the defendant infringed claims under the patent by planting, in 1998, without licence, seed saved from the 1997 crop which seed was known, or ought to have been known by the defendant to be Roundup tolerant…”