Profile: Carlyle Moritz

According to the 2000 court testimony of Percy Schmeiser’s field hand, Carlyle Moritz, swaths (swaths are the debris left over after a field has been mowed) from a neighbor’s field planted with Monsanto’s Roundup Ready Canola are blown onto one of Schmeiser’s fields. The swaths are subsequently picked up by a combine and deposited into the grain bins on that field. It is later suggested that some of the Roundup Ready Canola later found in Schmeiser’s crop may have grown from seeds carried onto his property in these swaths. [Federal Court of Canada, 6/22/2000, pp. 6 ]

Percy Schmeiser’s field hand, Carlyle Moritz, swaths and combines Schmeiser’s canola fields. The grain collected from the field where Roundup-resistant plants were earlier discovered (see Summer 1997) is stored in an old truck. The truck contains grain from both the area that Schmeiser sprayed and other areas of the same field. Schmeiser will use these seeds for his 1998 crop (see Spring 1998). [Federal Court of Canada, 6/22/2000, pp. 7 ; Monsanto Canada Inc. v. Percy Schmeiser, 3/29/2001, pp. 18-19 ]

Investigators with Robinson Security visit canola fields farmed by Carlyle Moritz to look for evidence that he is illegally growing Monsanto’s patented Roundup Ready Canola. They reportedly take samples from canola plants growing in a nearby right-of-way. Moritz, who works for Percy Schmeiser, rents the land from his mother. [Star Phoenix (Saskatoon), 7/20/2001]