http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/020128/misc/28corn.htm
Science & Technology 1/28/02
Bad seeds in court: when genetically modified plants
contaminate their crops, organic farmers fight big biotech
BY THOMAS HAYDEN
Imagine you're in Denver. Now drive north for 20 hours straight.
Welcome to Maymont, Saskatchewan, a place sort of like North
Dakota–only colder. Dale Beaudoin, 55, runs an organic farm
here on the Canadian prairie. "It's fairly nice, I guess, when it isn't
dry," he says. Dry, however, is a good word for his farm's cash
flow. Beaudoin got premium prices for keeping his crops free of
pesticides and other controversial trappings of modern
agriculture. But his 1999 canola harvest tested positive for
genetically modified (GM) strains, and its value dropped by a third.
So earlier this month Beaudoin joined some 1,000 other farmers in
a suit against GM canola makers Monsanto and Aventis, alleging
the firms' seeds have contaminated organic fields. The farmers
want restitution for lost profits and to block the introduction of GM
wheat.
Are genetically engineered crops–which contain genes from
other species that let plants produce their own pesticides, among
other things–actually dangerous? Perhaps more to balance
sheets and to the environment than to people. StarLink GM corn,
for instance, was at the center of an uproar two years ago that
prompted 300 food products to be yanked from grocery stores. A
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study later found no
evidence that StarLink actually made anyone sick. But in
November 2001, scientists reported finding genes from GM corn in
Mexican "criollo maize," a source of modern corn varieties. Plant
breeders worry such cross-pollination could flood out genetic
diversity, making it impossible to breed new strains. And along with
contamination from GM seeds blowing into organic fields, farmers
in western Canada fear GM-enhanced "superweeds"–problem
plants they can't kill with herbicides. "You really can't contain
these genes," says Allison Snow, a plant ecologist at Ohio State
University. With biotech companies working on plants that produce
drugs and industrial chemicals, she says, "we have to ask if we
want those genes getting around."
Weeding out genes. The seed developers tend to argue that
individual farmers who buy their GM seeds are responsible for any
adverse effects on their neighbors. But a recent Monsanto law-
suit might come back to haunt the biotech companies, says
Universi- ty of Saskatchewan law Prof. Martin Phillipson. In 1998,
Monsanto accused Percy Schmeiser, a Saskatchewan farmer, of
growing its herbicide-ready canola without permission. The
company won a lawsuit by asserting that it retains intellectual
property rights over its seed in the field. "They've established that
they have a lot of rights," says Phillipson, "but no one's ever
tested whether they also have responsibilities."
Beaudoin and his fellow farmers' new lawsuit may force that test. If
it succeeds, the suit would throw a wheat-field-size wrench into the
biotech giants' plans and encourage similar GM-blocking legal
action elsewhere. Beaudoin says the farmers are scrambling for
donations to fund their cause against deep-pocketed
corporations, but he doesn't see any options. "Losing canola was
tough," he says. "But if they ever got GM wheat on us, it would
pretty near be the end."