Grains: Monsanto vs. Schmeiser

Grains recounts the famous lawsuit filed by the multinational Monsanto against a Saskatchewan farmer. In 1998, the chemical and biotechnology giant accused Percy Schmeiser of infringing its patent on a genetically modified rapeseed seed: Roundup Ready canola. Schmeiser claimed the seeds had arrived in his field through airborne contamination. The story of his long resistance—and his defeat in the Supreme Court of Canada—resonated around the world.
Taking the investigation further, Annabel Soutar takes the reader behind the scenes of agribusiness, giving them an inside look at the methods Monsanto uses to introduce its GMO seeds into farming communities in Canada and around the world. Intimidation, denunciation, bribes, smear campaigns, and, of course, lawsuits are on the menu, while the Canadian government abdicates its role of monitoring the industry and informing the public.
In this documentary play, a genre she has made her specialty, the author interweaves the transcript of the trial with her own interviews with Schmeiser, lawyers, farmers, industrialists, researchers, civil servants, and activists. Far from any Manichaeism, she stages her investigation, her doubts about the true motives of the accused, as well as her questioning of the possibility of patenting and privatizing living things.