By Alice McFarlane

Bruno, Sask. farmers fight with Monsanto hits the big screen

Oct 9, 2020 | 11:21 AM

More than 20 years ago Percy Schmeiser of Bruno, Sask. and Monsanto were involved in a lengthy legal battle that ended up in the Supreme Court.

That fight is the focus of a new film being released today that stars Academy Award winning actor Christopher Walken who portrays Percy Schmeiser.

Monsanto said Schmeiser was growing its patented genetically modified canola without paying the licensing fee. Schmeiser claimed the seeds blew on his field. A judge eventually ruled in Monsanto’s favor.

University of Saskatchewan Agri-Food Innovation chair Stuart Smyth said it was his interest in the area of intellectual property in plants and how patents could be protected that drew him to the case

Smyth said the movie trailer he watched is a liberal interpretation of facts found in court documents.

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“It’s an interpretation of the myth that Percy was an innocent bystander in all of this. It doesn’t correlate in any way, shape or form with the decision from the judge where, in the strongest legal language I’ve ever seen, didn’t buy Percy’s argument.”

Even though Monsanto won the case, it generated a lot of negative publicity for genetically modified seed. Smyth said no company wants to see its name in the news suing a farmer, but Monsanto had no choice.

“The unfortunate thing was Monsanto had been notified by a couple dozen of Schmeiser’s neighbours that he was illegally growing Round-up Ready Canola while they were having to pay $15 an acre to do exactly the same thing,” Smyth said. “Monsanto approached Schmeiser about paying the technical use fee that all of his neighbours were paying and Schmeiser’s response was ‘take me to court.’

Smyth said Monsanto had no other option but to take Schmeiser to court in order to protect their intellectual property, which was the fundamental argument in the court cases.

Environmental groups opposed to genetically modified seed supported Schmeiser in his fight. Smyth said that irritated many farmers and others in the agriculture sector.

“I think a lot of farmers are disappointed the movie does an inaccurate job of portraying the company and a technology that has provided hundreds of millions of dollars of benefits to farmers across western Canada,” he said.

Some farmers took to Twitter to share their opinions.

As the movie Percy opens today in five Canadian cities including Saskatoon and Regina, Smyth doubted it will have much of an impact on the general public.

“I think a vast majority of Canadians are far more concerned about their health, their jobs and educating their kids while trying to work full time from home,” Smyth said. “It may resonate with a small segment of the population, but I think the majority of Canadians have far greater concerns.”

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF