The Voice of All the Farmers Who Couldn’t Speak Up Against Furious Companies in the World: PERCY SCHMEISER

Percy Schmeiser had for many years continued his ancestral legacy of farming. He had a non-GMO farming approach by growing his own seeds. As a seed conservator, Schmeiser inspected the crops each summer, observing how they reacted to too much heat, drought, or rain. He would try to find the strongest plants and save these seeds for next year's planting. In short, he was a person who made a living by devoting himself to farming. But one day, a multinational US-based company called Monsanto filed an accusation against Percy Schmeiser: It claimed that the canola seed Percy grew contained a technology in its gene. It was a pesticide-resistant gene. After the crop has grown, you spray the whole field with herbicides, it's called Roundup, and it kills all the weeds, but it doesn't harm the crop itself, so it doesn't work.

Monsanto ran unauthorized tests in Percy's field, revealing that the genes in Percy's crops were significantly matched to theirs. The company sued Percy for patent infringement because the company patented a gene that makes crops tolerant to powerful herbicides called Roundup. A farmer could kill all the weeds in the field with this gene while keeping the crops alive, so the company claimed that Percy had purposely multiplied this patented gene and cell-containing canola crop and planted, grown, and sold it commercially. Percy was quite shocked by this case and would never admit such an accusation. Against this monster with endless financial and legal resources, Percy has decided to continue his fight against them.

Many lawsuits eventually he faced huge debts. The company put a lien on Percy's house, his farm, in short, everything. Despite public interest, the courts did not rule in Percy's favor. But Percy never gave up, he wanted to continue his fight against this monstrous company that no farmer has yet succeeded in, because his giving up would be a deterrent to the possibility that other farmers would object to Monsanto and many companies like it if he gave up. Percy took his case to the Supreme Court of Canada. The purpose of the company was actually to force him to keep Percy as it held other farmers and make them dependent and indebted. Percy defended himself in court, stating that the seeds of the canola flying from neighboring fields had contaminated the natural canola he had planted, and therefore he was not responsible.

His lawyer in the case stated in court that even if Percy had seeds containing the Monsanto gene, he did not receive any patents for them, and that the seeds came into Percy's property through natural reproduction, as has been done by farmers for thousands of years. Due to the lack of sufficient evidence to prove Percy's infringement of the patent and the company's patent not covering such products, which are a living and reproducing plant, the judges in a 5-to-4 decision annulled the decision declaring Percy owed millions of dollars. In this way, Percy's property and farm were also removed from foreclosure. But unfortunately, the judges decided that Percy should send all the seeds he had to Monsanto.

Since 1996, North American farmers have paid Monsanto an estimated $85 million to $160 million for GMO crops. While Schemeiser has received thousands of letters from his supporters over the years, his wife Louise delivered a thank-you note to each of the letters. When Percy Schmeiser passed away on October 13, 2020, all his loved ones were with him. Percy and his wife Louise's legacy; continues to inspire farmers around the world to make their voices heard.

NEVER MEASURE THE RESULTS OF ACTIONS MEASURE THE EFFORT, THE MOST IMPORTANT FOR MAN IS TO DO WHAT'S RIGHT (BHAGAVAT GITA: A sacred Hindu text, considered one of the most important texts in the history of literature and philosophy)