percy schmeisser, despite the momentum and inertia his claim has generated for the anti-gmo movement, is an example of duplicity at its very political worst, or best. word is percy lied outright about the crop (i.e., he planted the seed intentionally himself), deflecting this into a larger, extended, complicated debate about gmo. the majority of saskatchewan grain farmers have shown a reluctance to gmo-produced seed; monsanto is aware of this and have gone on record as such, saying perhaps they need to corner another market. i disagree with the commercial ownership of organisms, and am further very uneasy about the synthetic manufacture and design of such organisms. ethics ought to start before the profiteering and exploitation of markets dependent on low-cash intensive/low return cycles and entirely variable dynamics like physical geography , weather, and local environmental affects. these things in and of themselves can be radical enough. yet, percy has vindicated himself at the expense of falsehoods and fiction that every farmer on the prairie knows is a farce. growers, of which monsanto is one, exist in a dialectical kind of relationship with farmers and grain producers. sometimes, the process is of a more symmetrical kind: producers work closely with local growers and seed plants. other times, the proximity and asymmetry is more pronounced, or the scale of the business between the two is multiplied. any seed producer would step in if trademark and copyright laws were violated in relation to the commodity produced, gmo or not. percy and monsanto have a legal disagreement before the gmo issue...we certainly can't be naive to think a operation would waive their rights to protect their capital investments, would we? of course they pursued the matter legally. recall: this is percy challenging the prior ruling that deemed him at fault. we cannot be so naive as to reduce this to big guy/little guy and the ethical reprehensibility of current sciences and technologies. they are not going away. also, we shouldn't so easily turn our heads 'from the taint of capitalism' because capital is what keeps people living, working, and scraping by on a prairie in decline after 'free' trade, federal bungling, and the mad cow fall-out. yet, percy has transformed the debate, with tactical and clever manipulation and articulation, into an entirely different issue, which has seen his subsequent affiliation and allegiance with groups, organizations, and lobbies sensitive to the new cause he stapled onto his problem. he has created a way of projecting these concerns to a larger audience i am not saying that such a production is a negative think. i welcome the attention and appeal this case is generating. yet what i cannot abide is percy schmeisser being celebrated as a stereotyped folksy, green, grassroots activist...that reeks of ridiculousness, of simplicity, and obscures some of the more peripheral, less realized, but very pertinent threads of this case. also, amid a lie and the fabricating and the allowing the sliding and slipping from one issue to another, what is at stake is the credibility of the kinds of associations being made in this context. i'd hate to see the larger bodies supporting the pro-percy side of the come out looking silly, looking illegitimate. those groups have a profound effect, practically and by sheer force of voice and number, on the loaded and converging political discourse that is this gmo, farming, and social and cultural life on the prairie. sure, percy has hijacked the 'david and goliath' narrative to fit his profile and, yes, it may result in a progressive and positive result with respect to limiting and monitoring the development of gmo's in the context of highlighting problems of unbridled production, profits, and things like crop success and susceptibility. yet, is this the battle the some of the anti-gmo lobby wants, laying in wait like vultures and looking for moments to jump on the most recent lumpen carcass of a sensational case or instance. yet, these corporations understand bureaucracy and policy; there's resistance to be had on the inside, and i'm sure its ongoing and developing. that's why the groups involved need to consider their role in relation to future dealings with companies like monsanto. i'm not advocating a refusal to take up the gmo concern. i'm saying it should be done appropriately, clearly, for all to see so that the terms are open, autonomous, and radical themselves versus the lumbering legalese that occurs. i'm saying we need the guns because the battle is a long one that is never a zero-sum thing. if lobbies burn out on this one, on the grounds of a what is a contrived lie, everyone with apprehensions about gmo comes out for the worse, many of them farmers in the prairie. percy sensed this, to an extent. hence his latest maneuver. yet, framing up percy as a hero? he should be so lucky. spare me the histrionics. percy gets the 'percy ' tag because he is t-shirt, a label, a mythology in an event that is leaking far more than is being reported and narrated here.