The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

transgenic wheat 237drove down a straight road running to the horizon over the flat landscape, hetold me that when European settlers had come to Canada they’d broughtwheat seeds that were not adapted to the extremely harsh climatic conditionsof the prairies. Then in 1842, David Fife, a Scottish farmer who hadsettled in Ontario, began to plant seeds that a friend from Glasgow had gottenfrom a cargo of Ukrainian wheat shipped from Danzig. That variety ofred wheat, known as Red Fife in honor of its discoverer, soon spread throughthe plains like wildfire, because it had strong rust resistance and ripenedearly enough to escape autumn frosts. Later a breeder decided to cross itwith Hard Red Calcutta, a variety from India, to increase yields and flourquality. Thus was born Marquis, which in the early twentieth century conquereda vast territory stretching from southern Nebraska to northern Saskatchewan,considered today one of the world’s breadbaskets.“This history,” Loiselle told me, “is a very good illustration of the great sagaof wheat, which humanity was able to develop in the four corners of theworld because the exchange of seeds was not yet blocked by patents andTerminator.”We were now in a huge field of Red Fife wheat, surrounded by plots ofRoundup Ready canola drying on the ground. “Before,” he told me, “I rotatedcrops of wheat and canola or mustard. But I had to stop because myfield was contaminated by my neighbor’s transgenic canola, probably transportedby the wind. My organic certification agency asked me not to growcanola or any related plant for at least five years, because it is known thatcanola seeds can lie dormant in the soil for that length of time. In any case,I don’t think I will go back to growing organic canola, because it’s impossibleto protect against contamination.”“You can’t plant hedges or buffer zones, as agricultural authorities recommend?”I asked.“It wouldn’t do any good. You can’t prevent all natural events: birds, bees,wind. Agriculture works with living things, which are not collections ofgenes set down on a piece of paper. Contrary to what Monsanto claims, Ican tell you that once a GMO is introduced, the farmer loses the capacity tochoose what sorts of crops he wants to grow, because GMOs colonize everything.They infringe my freedom as a farmer to plant what I want where Iwant. That’s why we were prepared to do anything to preserve wheat fromthat calamity.”In January 2002, Loiselle joined a class action suit that included most of