The Current Situation

The European Commission has been planning to introduce limits for the "accidental or technically unavoidable" contamination of conventional seed with genetically modified varieties for the past 7 years. In September 2004 a directive which would allow up to 0.3% GMOs in maize and oilseed rape without being labeled was supposed to be adopted. However, after fierce protests, the Commission withdrew the proposal at the last minute leaving the problem to be dealt with by the then new EU commissioners. Stavros Dimas, Commissioner for the Environment 2004-2009, did not submitt any new recommendations and even publically questioned whether thresholds are either sensible or necessary. The official position of the EU Commission remains, however, that a new proposal for the specification of threshold values is in the works. The new Commissioner responsible for GMOs, John Dalli, has so far proved less critical of GM technology than his predecessor.

Schmeiser vs. Monsanto

Percy Schmeiser is a farmer from Saskatchewan Canada. In 1998 after his rapeseed field was contaminated with Monsanto's Round-Up Ready Canola he was sued for damages by the market dominating seed company Monsanto. Monsanto's position was that it didn't matter wheter or not Schmeiser knew about the contamination with the Roundup Ready gene, or whether or not he took advantage of the technology (he didn't); they take action against him for infringment of a patent, insisting that he must pay Monsanto their Technology Fee of $15./acre. Early in March the Supreme Court of Canada agreed with Schmeiser, ruling that he didn't have to pay Monsanto anything. The lately released film "David against Monsanto" made by author Bertram Verhaag tells the story of Percy Schmeiser and his unequal fight against the multinational company Monsanto.