May 14, 2001 -- Although Monsanto won a court victory against farmer Percy Schmeiser, controversy continues over Roundup Ready canola in Canada.

Saskatchewan Wheat Pool's (SWP) recall of Quest, a Roundup Ready canola variety, continues while Agricore, a farmer-owned cooperative, has completed its recall operations in Alberta and
Saskatchewan, according to Bridge News. Agricore and Saskatchewan
Wheat Pool April 25, 2001, agreed to voluntarily withdraw Quest canola from the market and offered replacement seed to farmers for this spring’s planting.

Routine quality testing determined that some Quest seed lots contained trace levels of GT-200, an alternate version of the Roundup Ready trait in canola. The commercial version is a virtually identical
genetic event designated GT-73. Both versions are fully approved in Canada, but GT-200 is not approved in export markets like Japan, China and Mexico.

About 5,000 acres were seeded with Quest seed bought from SWP. Some of the delay might reflect the fact that dryness in parts of Saskatchewan is keeping some farmers from seeding as they modify
their crop plans, and they haven't decided what crop they want in exchange for the Quest seed.

A total of 8,000 acres were planted with the Quest canola bought from Agricore, 1,000 of which were seeded in the fall, says Diane Wreford, Agricore spokesperson. Both companies have offered to pay
for the burning or tilling of fields that have already been planted.

Last year after the Toronto Globe and Mail June 15, 2000, published an article about herbicide-resistant volunteer canola appearing on Tony Heuther's Sexsmith, Alberta, farm. Heuther, a canola
and wheat producer, in 1998, discovered volunteer canola that would not respond to herbicide treatments in wheat fields that had been planted to Quest and other herbicide-resistant canolas the year before.

Heuther had experimented with three varieties of herbicide-resistant canola: Roundup Ready Quest, Liberty-resistant Innovator and Pursuit-resistant 45A71 from Pioneer Hi-Bred International.

When Heuther rotated the canola fields to wheat, he found neither Roundup, Liberty nor Pursuit would control the volunteer canola. The volunteer canola was thickest where Quest had been planted.
Eventually Heuther was able to establish control with 2,4-D.

Alberta Agriculture specialists determined that the volunteer canola was the first documented case of gene stacking in canola occurring without deliberate human intervention.

On March 29, 2001, Canadian Judge W. Andrew MacKay ruled that Schmeiser must pay Monsanto $10,000 for licensing fees and up to $75,000 in profits from his 1998 crop because of unlicensed
Roundup Ready canola found growing on his Bruno, Saskatchewan, farm. Schmeiser claimed that he did not illegally "brown-bag" Roundup Ready seed, but that pollen from neighboring farms crossed
with his conventional canola.

But, notes E. Anne Clark of the University of Guelph's Department of Plant Agriculture, the judge ruled that the source of the Roundup Ready canola was not important, only that Schmeiser failed to
report the presence of the Roundup Ready trait in his canola. According to Schmeiser's account, the trait became apparent to him as he was treating weeds around telephone poles with Roundup and noticed the spray appeared to have
no effect on the canola. Later the 70-year-old farmer applied Roundup to the canola in test strips to confirm the crop's herbicide resistance. Schmeiser says he never intended to treat the canola crop with
Roundup or sell it as seed.

Monsanto brought suit against Schmeiser after company investigators took samples from his fields and from crop that he had sold at a local elevator. Schmeiser is considering an appeal.

For more information, visit these Web sites:

• Saskatchewan Wheat Pool
  
• Agricore
  
• PercySchmeiser.com
  
• Federal Court of Canada