At 15:08 11-05-99 -0600, you wrote:
>
>"Basically you've got trespassing and you've got theft."
>
>
>Monsanto Investigators Accused of Trespassing
>
>By Rick Weiss
>Washington Post Staff Writer
>Sunday, May 2, 1999; Page A26
>
>Private investigators working for Monsanto, the St. Louis-based
>agricultural company, trespassed on a Canadian farmer's property and
>surreptitiously obtained samples of his harvested seeds from a local mill
>to gather evidence for a lawsuit against him, according to newly released
>court documents and interviews with company officials and others.
>
>The revelations have reignited a bitter controversy over Monsanto's
>ongoing pursuit of farmers who have allegedly saved and replanted the
>company's high-tech, genetically engineered seeds after harvest. Monsanto
>has a policy of precluding growers from saving seeds from those crops,
>demanding instead that they buy fresh seed every year.
>
>The farmer, Percy Schmeiser of Bruno, Saskatchewan, is one of hundreds of
>growers that Monsanto has tracked down in the United States and Canada
>during the past year for allegedly violating the company's ban on saving
>the patented seeds.
>
>But while the vast majority of farmers approached by Monsanto have paid
>fines and agreed to allow the company to inspect their fields for years to
>come, Schmeiser last year became something of a folk hero in Canada by
>fighting back against the multinational giant. He has gained the support
>of environmental groups and others around the world who oppose corporate
>restrictions on seed saving, which many subsistence farmers depend upon
>for survival.
>
>Monsanto claims that Schmeiser knowingly grew, harvested and replanted
>seeds of the company's genetically enhanced "Roundup Ready" canola. The
>variety is tolerant to Roundup, Monsanto's popular weedkiller, allowing
>farmers to spray the herbicide freely without worrying about harming the
>crop itself.
>
>Schmeiser has claimed that if any Roundup Ready canola was growing 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.
>
>Monsanto's case is based largely upon DNA tests conducted on plants from
>Schmeiser's fields in 1998. According to the company, those tests prove
>that fully 900 acres were planted with Roundup Ready canola -- far more
>than could be expected from windblown contamination.
>
>The company gathered the plant samples after obtaining a court order
>granting permission to go onto Schmeiser's land. But court documents
>filed April 22 by Schmeiser's lawyer, Terry Zakreski of Saskatoon, make
>public for the first time some of the questionable evidence-gathering
>tactics used by Monsanto before it was granted that court order.
>
>In testimony filed with the Federal Court of Canada -- part of Zakreski's
>motion to dismiss the case -- a Monsanto representative reports that
>private investigators hired by the company in 1997 trespassed on
>Schmeiser's property to snip plant samples for DNA testing.
>
>Moreover, according to the documents and interviews, a Monsanto
>representative approached an employee of the Humboldt Flour Mill, where
>Schmeiser brought his harvested seeds for cleaning, and asked for a sample
>of his harvest for DNA testing. The mill's manager at the time, Gary
>Pappenpoot, complied after checking with his boss -- a decision, he said
>Friday, he now regrets.
>
>"Basically you've got trespassing and you've got theft," Schmeiser said.
>"As my wife said, if I went down to Monsanto's headquarters in St. Louis
>and trespassed or took a piece of paper out of that building I'm sure I'd
>end up in jail."
>
>Philip Angell, Monsanto's director of corporate communications, disputed
>the allegations against the company. Despite the sworn testimony, he
>said, it is still not completely clear that the investigators in 1997
>actually crossed Schmeiser's property line. Even if they did, he said,
>trespassing is neither a criminal nor a civil offense in Saskatchewan -- a
>legal interpretation Zakreski disputes.
>
>Angell also said -- and Pappenpoot confirmed -- that the Humboldt mill
>routinely saved samples of farmers' seeds in case questions arose later
>about contamination or mix-ups. Angell said Monsanto attorneys were now
>trying to determine whether those saved samples technically still belonged
>to Schmeiser or to the mill, which would then have the right to share them
>with anyone it chose to.
>
>In any case, Angell said, neither the disputed 1997 DNA test results nor
>the flour mill samples were used by the company to get its court order for
>the more extensive field testing it conducted in 1998. The company
>believes that those early tests would have been admissible in court, he
>said, but they did not meet the company's high ethical standards.
>
>Angell said Monsanto now has a written policy that precludes its hired
>investigators from trespassing to gather evidence.
>
>C Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company
>
>
>
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