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April 2001
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Percy Must Raise $50,000 Canadian to Appeal
Case/Protest Contact Info.
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From: http://www.percyschmeiser.com/
Quote: "In my case, I never had anything to do with Monsanto, outside of buying chemicals. I never signed a contract. If I would go to St. Louis and contaminate their plots -- destroy what they have worked on for 40 years -- I think I would be put in jail and the key thrown away,"
Percy Schmeiser, June 19, 2000
Your Support is Needed
If you believe in this important cause, your assistance would be greatly appreciated.
To make a donation please send a check or money order to:
"Fight Genetically Altered Food Fund Inc."
CIBC (Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce)
603 Main St. Humboldt SK Canada SOK 2AO
Phone No. (306) 682-2614
Mary La France <mary.lafrance@mindspring.com>
TO ALL GENETIC ENGINEERING ACTIVISTS
Folks, this affects everyone.
This is about food imperialism.
This is an infringement on our rights . . . rights for food safety, the right to farm, the right to property.
The right to know what's in our food!
The Canadian judge just ruled in favor of Monsanto against Percy Schmeiser. Monsanto claims that he was illegally growing genetically engineered canola without paying Monsanto a fee to use their seed.
This will begin to happen in the US too, because the door has now been opened to allow biotech companies to sieze property from farmers, whether or not genetically-altered crops are a result of pollen drift.
Percy Schmeiser urgently needs our support. We are calling on everyone in to help him file for an appeal.
Forwarded by MIRAGE (Michigan Resistance Against Genetic Engineering)
Contact: Mary LaFrance
(734) 282-6935
or Peggy Malnati (248) 661-463
Peggy Malnati [ahmdet@concentric.net]
I just got off the phone with Percy Schmeiser, the 70-yr-old canola farmer from Saskatchewan who went to battle against Monsanto for contaminating his fields with genetically altered canola plants. As those of you on my lists now know, the judge in this landmark case ruled against him this past Thursday. Background on the case can be found at Percy's website:
There are many curious details about and disturbing implications to this new ruling, including
o the fact that a farmer is suppose to know if and when his fields have become contaminated with pollen from genetically engineered (GE) plants and is then not suppose to plant this seed (even if it's from his own seedstock, a product of 50 years' careful selective breeding);
o that if the GE plants from one company cross with Monsanto's GE plants, that Monsanto owns the new hybrid plants, not both companies;
o that if Monsanto's GE plants cross with and contaminate non-GE plants, Monsanto also owns the new cross;
o that even though Percy had bred his own seed for 50 years, the fact that it had become "genetically polluted" with Monsanto's Round-up-Ready products means that Monsanto now owns his seed stock too;
o that even though not all of his crop was contaminated and many of his fields had no genetic contamination at all, Percy must hand over the ENTIRE PROFIT for all his fields for the calendar year 1998;
o and it would seem that even though Monsanto has been publicly spreading misinformation about Percy and this case, and privately telling people that they were going to "get Percy," Monsanto is now entitled to damages.
The judge in this case has postponed rendering his decision 5 times prior to handing down his decision this past Thursday. Oddly enough, this same justice announced that he was stepping down from the bench last October, but is apparently still rendering decisions including this landmark case.
Percy must decide within a short period of time if he can afford to file an appeal for this case, which has already cost him $200,000 Canadian -- most of his and his wife's retirement fund. His lawyers say it will cost him another $50,000 Canadian just to appeal. Percy doesn't have the $50,000 and if he doesn't appeal and get the decision reversed, he will have to pay Monsanto several-hundred-thousand-dollars Canadian for damages in this case, which will not only wipe out his and his wife's entire life's savings, but bankrupt him in the process.
If you feel as strongly as I do about the dangers of releasing genetically engineered products into the environment without testing and without any care as to what they do there; if you feel as strongly as I do about the threat that corporate bullying of farmers and other citizens means to a free society; if you're as sick and tired as I am of watching corporations buy government favor and waltz in and out of key cabinet positions; and if you just feel as I do that Percy Schmeiser has been given a raw deal -- both by Monsanto and by the Federal Court in Ottawa -- then may I please ask you to call or write him and tell him you support what he's doing? May I also ask those of you with the ability to please consider making a donation in any amount to the trust that has been set up to take donations to cover his court costs? Your pledge now could make the difference in whether or not Percy can appeal this outrageously unfair decision. Whether you realize it or not, Percy is fighting for all of us, and the outcome of his case will have profound implications on many other cases on this matter that are currently pending in various courts in the world.
If you believe in this important cause, your assistance would be greatly appreciated. To make a donation please send a check or money order to:
"Fight Genetically Altered Food Fund Inc."
CIBC (Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce)
603 Main St. Humboldt SK Canada SOK 2AO
Phone No. (306) 682-2614
In the quest of health and environmental sanity,
Master Gardener
Organic Gardener
Activist
Farmer loses against Monsanto/website & contact info
Website and email addresses (sent from a friend in Canada) for those who want more info on this case and want to support or protest. Please forward.
Kelley
Here are Canada's list of addresses:
Prime Minister Cretien <pm@pm.gc.ca>
Health Minister Allen Rock <Rock.A@parl.gc.ca>
Enviroment Minister David Anderson <Anderson.D@parl.gc.ca>
Minister of Agriculture Lyle Vanclief <Vanclief.L@parl.gc.ca>
Email and phone # of every member of parliament:
http://www.caps.20m.com/mps.htm
At the Percy Schmeiser website http://www.percyschmeiser.com/
there is one e-mail address <rschm@telusplanet.net>.
Canadian Biotechnology Advisory Committee
Web Site http://www.cbac-cccb.ca
E-mail: <info@cbac-cccb.ca>
BMCC members include the Ministers of Agriculture and Agri-Food, Environment, Fisheries & Oceans, Foreign Affairs & International Trade, Health, Industry and Natural Resources.
Minister of agriculture <Vanclief.L@parl.gc.ca>
http://www.fct-cf.gc.ca/bulletins/whatsnew/whatsnew_e.shtml
The federal court's decision on the Schmeiser - Monsanto case is highly interesting reading, especially Monsanto's original claim mentioning " use of any and all quantity of the patented seeds", and paragraphs 93-96 and 116-118. IMO this supports strongly the call for 0% contamination of sowing seeds and farmers should ask Monsato et al. to remove any patented GE varieties from saved or bought sowing seed even before planting in order not to infringe patent rights.
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OCIA Certified Organic Produce
Catnip Farm, Iowa County
(319) 685-4270 <doodles@netins.net>
Mail Order: Box 72, Victor, IA 52347
http://www.localharvest.org/listing.jsp?id=87&hit=1
Organic Consumers Association Regional Coordinator
Sierra Club Iowa Chapter Executive Committee
http://www.sierraclub.org/chapters/ia/
Managing Editor, Iowa City Area Sierra Club News
Iowa City Area Sierra Club Executive Committee
http://www.sierraclub.org/chapters/ia/icag/
Iowa Green Party Agriculture Committee
Director, Midwest Anti-Drift Coalition
http://www.IowaFarmer.com/000617/drift2.htm
http://www.StopDrift.org (under construction)
Ericka Dana (319) 685-4270
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The Midwest Anti-Drift Coalition
Not just for Midwesterners...
Ericka Dana, certified organic farmer and safe-food activist, has begun a national network based in Iowa called The Midwest Anti-Drift Coalition (MADCO) as a resource and support group for anyone who is concerned with pesticide contamination. This group includes farmers, home gardeners, drift survivors, chemically sensitive people, prairie preservationists, those with environmental illness, consumers who don't want pesticides in or on their food & parents who don't want their children exposed to toxic chemicals in schools or on the ground where they play. Why is a national network entitled "Midwest"? Dana says, "Two reasons - I like the acronym and the group began here in Iowa - but MADCO will encompass all aspects of the pesticide exposure issue and include all regions of the US (& beyond)." If you'd like to be included on the contact list, sign up by writing to Ericka at <doodles@netins.net> or Catnip Farm, PO Box 72, Victor, IA 52347.
The MADCO resource website, www.StopDrift.org, is under construction.
