The above video is a trailer to a new documentary about Percy Schmeiser, a farmer from Bruno -- a small town about 40 miles east of Regina in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. In May of 2004, the Supreme Court of Canada in a narrow 5-4 decision ruled that the Saskatchewan farmer had violated a patent that Monsanto Canada Inc. held on genes of genetically engineered canola seeds.

At the centre of the litigation was a gene that Monsanto invented, patented and introduced into canola. Created in 1996 and known as Roundup Ready, it makes canola plants resistant to a common weed-control herbicide that the company markets under the name of Roundup. Its progeny are equally resistant.

The litigation dates to 1997, when Monsanto found its genetically engineered canola plant growing on Mr. Schmeiser's farm. Mr. Schmeiser contended that since a plant is a higher life form and cannot be patented, he had done nothing wrong. Monsanto did not claim protection for the genetically modified plant itself, but rather for the genes and the modified cells from which it is composed.

Mr. Schmeiser, already in his mid-70s, cast himself as a farmer of the old school who habitually used seeds from previous crops to plant new canola. No fan of chemical herbicides, Mr. Schmeiser used Roundup sparingly in 1997 to eliminate weeds around some power poles and ditches.

He has steadfastly insisted that the seed somehow blew onto his fields from passing trucks or from neighbouring farms, which had paid Monsanto Canada Inc. the licensing fee of $15 an acre to use it.

He said he was astonished to discover that a great deal of the canola in those areas survived his spraying, suggesting that had somehow acquired a resistance to the herbicide. He used portions of the seed from those areas for his crop the following year.

With the aid of environmentalists, he quickly acquired the image of a little guy taking on a greedy corporate conglomerate. Although Monsanto disputed Mr. Schmeiser's version of events, the company's main contention was simply that Mr. Schmeiser reaped and reused the herbicide-resistant seed without authorization.

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