Commodity Online
Have you heard of a POTA type law which shackles the farmers in the US as far as genetically modified seeds are concerned? If you don’t know, just ask Percy Schmeiser of Canada. Schmeiser is a winner of 2007 Right Livelihood Award also.

He has been a victim of America’s typical corporate friendly laws and a guiding light for other farmers across the world suffering from draconian laws set by big corporates.

The case goes back to several years. But the results came just recently. All started with Schmeiser planting some rape seed in his field. His neighbouring farmers had planted genetically-modified rape seed plants developed by multi-national company Monsanto. And as the plants grow, natural cross-pollination happened and GM plants in the neighbouring fields contaminated Schmeiser’s fields. Following this, Monsanto sued Schmeiser for using their GM seeds without permission. In the US, laws specify that those farmers who use GM seeds should enter into an agreement with the seed producing company to follow the regulations set by the company as far as the seeds are concerned.

And the rider to that is if the company sues a farmer for using its product without permission, then it is the liability of the farmer to prove himself/herself innocent. This was the case in India’s now scrapped POTA law also. If one person is booked under POTA it is that person’s responsibility to prove himself or herself innocent.
So, same situation is there in US as far as GM seeds are concerned.

However, these rules are not implemented in India, where Monsanto is at the receiving end in several states. Even the company is not allowed to hike the prices of the GM seeds unprecedentedly.

A case in point is the Bt Cotton seeds, developed by Monsanto, available in India. In Andhra Pradesh, the seeds are sold to farmers in big quantity. And when the company tried to hike the prices in the state one year after the seeds were launched in AP, the state government interfered and told the company to cut prices. This resulted in a court battle and finally the company had to toe the state government’s line.

However, Schmeiser’s battle is a precursor of events to come for farmers across the globe. In a twist in the tale, Schmeiser did not budge. He sued Monsanto for contaminating his fields with the company’s GM seeds. After initial success, Monsanto failed later in the case to prove that Schmeiser used its product. Later, in an out of court settlement finalised on March 19, 2008, Monsanto has agreed to pay all the clean-up costs of the Roundup Ready canola (rape seed) that contaminated Schmeiser’s fields. Also part of the agreement was that there was no gag order on the settlement and that Monsanto could be sued again if further contamination occurred.

Schmeiser believes this precedent setting agreement ensures that farmers will be entitled to reimbursement when their fields become contaminated with unwanted Roundup Ready canola or any other unwanted GMO plants.

With this, Schmeiser has given the world a wake-up call about the dangers to farmers and biodiversity everywhere from the growing dominance and market aggression of companies engaged in the genetic engineering of crops.

In US, as many as 30,000 different products on grocery store shelves as “modified”. That’s largely because many processed foods contain soy. Half of North America’s soy crop is genetically engineered.

GM plants are often created to resist disease and eliminate the need for pesticides. Desired characteristics, such as a hardier texture, higher nutritional value or faster growth, are chosen to produce a kind of super food.

In Canada, farmers can grow different varieties of corn or wheat. Some are modified while others are not. Although farmers try to grow GM crops in separate fields, it’s hard to guarantee that the different crops won’t get mixed somewhere in the process.

The seed market is now dominated by a few giant transnational corporations, all competing to take out patents which claim the right to own and exploit crops such as a variety of Basmati rice, grown for many years by third world farmers.

Due to the strict rules regarding harvesting, seed storage and repurchase, the system established by the marketing of patented GM seeds could force poor farmers onto an expensive treadmill of dependence on the firms seeds and chemicals.

If you use GM seeds, you must pay for a new batch of them the following year and are barred from using seeds from the plants themselves to replant the following year.

This system is established exclusively to protect the marketing strategy and bottom lines of the firms that have patented these seed varieties, regardless of their actual role in creating the seeds, regardless of the natural pollination process, and regardless of the motives of the firms in selling the seeds.