Private investigators employed by Monsanto trespassed on a Canadian farmer’s property to take samples of his crops in hopes of gathering evidence for a lawsuit against him, according to court documents and interviews with involved parties. Monsanto accuses the farmer, Percy Schmeiser, of illegally saving and replanting the company’s high-tech, genetically engineered seeds instead of buying new seed every year. Schmeiser has become a folk hero in Canada and gained the support of environmental groups around the world by fighting back against the multinational corporation, claiming that if Monsanto canola was growing on his land, it was the result of seeds blowing onto his land from neighboring farms or passing trucks.
