by Nolan Hoggarth

Excellence Through Stewardship defines adventitious presence (AP) also known as low-level presence or LLP to the unintentional and incidental commingling of trace amounts of one type of seed, grain or food product with another.

Lisa Mumm (representing Mumm’s Sprouting Seeds) and Arnold Taylor (representing Canadian Organic Growers) attended the oral arguments of Monsanto's pre-trial motion to dismiss landmark organic community lawsuit OSGATA et al v.

On March 29, 2011, on behalf of 60 family farmers, seed businesses and organic agricultural organizations, the Public Patent Foundation at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (PUBPAT) filed suit against Monsanto Company to challenge the chemical giant’s patents on genetically modified seed.

The organic plaintiffs were forced to sue pre-emptively to protect themselves from being accused of patent infringement should they ever become contaminated by Monsanto's genetically modified seed.

Martin Meinert (President of SOD), Dean Gregory (Vice President), Br. Kurt Van Kuren (Director) and Arnold Taylor (Organic Agriculture Protection Fund Chair and SK representative, Organic Federation of Canada) had the opportunity to meet with Doug Billett (Director of Crops Branch), Penny McCall (Manager) and Chantal Jacobs (Provincial Specialist: Organic Crop Production) on March 25, 2011.