Monsanto ruling disappoints Ontario farm group

Friday, March 2, 2012

by SUSAN MANN and BETTER FARMING STAFF

A United States District Court judge threw out an organic growers’ group court case against farm tech industry giant Monsanto last week after determining the group’s fears of legal action if their fields became contaminated with the seed were unfounded.

The Public Patent Foundation, a non-profit legal services organization, launched the lawsuit a year ago. Along with seeking court protection for farmers whose crops may become contaminated by Monsanto’s genetically engineered seed, the suit challenged the validity of Monsanto’s patents on genetically modified seed.

A number of Canadian farmers and farm groups, including Canadian Organic Growers, were among the 83 farmers, small seed businesses and agricultural organizations who joined the action.

Judge Naomi Buchwald of the United States District Court, Southern District of New York heard oral arguments in federal district court in Manhattan on Jan. 31 to determine if the case could proceed to trial. In her Feb. 24 ruling the judge rejected Public Patent Foundation's claim that Monsanto would have sued farmers who didn't want to have the company's genetics in their crops and called it a "transparent effort to create a controversy where none exists."

Ann Slater, chair of the genetic engineering committee for Ecological Farmers of Ontario, says it was disappointing that the judge threw the case out. Ecological Farmers offered support but didn’t take a lead role in the lawsuit. It’s an Ontario group working to help farmers improve the health of their soil, water, crops and livestock and the diversity of the environment.

“This avenue didn’t work,” Slater says. But “we’ll continue to look for ways to ensure that organic growers and farmers who don’t want to grow genetically modified crops are able to do so.”

Slater, a certified organic farmer and Ontario coordinator for the National Farmers Union, says a particular concern among Canadian organic growers is the release of genetically engineered alfalfa. It has been commercially released in the United States but not in Canada. Farmers’ concern about that promoted them to get involved in the lawsuit, she says.

In the Feb. 27 Monsanto news release, David F. Snively, the company’s executive vice president, secretary and general counsel, stated that the ruling “tore down a historic myth which is commonly perpetuated against our business by these plaintiffs and other parties through the Internet, noting that not only were such claims unsubstantiated but, more importantly, they were unjustified." BF