The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

the iron law of the patenting of life 217sands of dollars trying to get rid of this canola that they didn’t plant. Theyhave to use more and more powerful pesticides to get rid of this technology.”35 These two statements were quoted in Seeds of Doubt, a report publishedin September 2002 by the Soil Association (a British association forthe promotion of organic farming founded in 1946), which presented a verydetailed description of transgenic crops in North America: “Widespread GMcontamination has severely disrupted GM-free production including organicfarming, destroyed trade, and undermined the competitiveness of NorthAmerican agriculture overall. GM crops have also increased the reliance offarmers on herbicides and led to many legal problems.” 36A study commissioned by the Saskatchewan Agriculture Department, forexample, found in 2001 that pollen from Roundup Ready canola couldtravel a distance of at least eight hundred yards, eight times the distance recommendedby authorities between GM and conventional crops. 37 The resultwas that the U.S. body certifying organic food acknowledged in theWestern Producer in 2001 that it was practically impossible to find canola,corn, or soybean seed that had not been contaminated by GMOs. In thesame article, the Canadian Seed Trade Association admitted that all conventionalvarieties had been contaminated to a level of at least 1 percent byGMOs. 38 One wonders what the situation is eight years later.In any event, anticipating the uncontrollable effects of transgenic contamination,the principal agricultural insurance companies in the UnitedKingdom announced in 2003 that they would refuse to insure producers ofGM crops against this risk, which they compared to the problems of asbestosand terrorist acts, because of the unforeseeable costs it might bringabout. In a survey published in The Guardian, insurance companies such asNational Farm Union Mutual, Rural Insurance Group (Lloyd’s), and BIBUnderwriters Ltd (Axa) said they “felt that too little was known about thelong-term effects of these crops on human health and the environment to beable to offer any form of cover.” 39But one thing was certain: in North America, GMO contamination hadcaused “a morass of litigation,” in the words of the Soil Association, “embracingall levels of the industry: farmers, processors, retailers, consumers,and the biotechnology companies,” with disputes among them all arisingwhenever an unwanted GMO appeared anywhere. 40 To illustrate the insolubleabsurdity of the situation, Seeds of Doubt gave the example of the contaminationof a shipment of conventional Canadian canola, inspected in