Profile: Humboldt Flour Mills

Monsanto employee Rob Chomyn asks Gary Pappenpoot, the manager at Humboldt Flour Mills, if he would be willing to provide Monsanto with samples of seeds from farmers the company is investigating. Pappenpoot agrees. Humboldt Flour Mills inoculates seeds against diseases and insects. It does not clean seeds (i.e., remove the chaff). [Federal Court of Canada, 6/22/2000, pp. 18 ]

Before planting his 1998 crop, Percy Schmeiser brings approximately four tons of seed that came from the field (see Fall 1997) where patches of Roundup-resistant canola were discovered the year before (see Summer 1997) to Humboldt Flour Mills for inoculation against diseases and insects. According to Schmeiser, the seeds have not been cleaned and therefore are full of chaff. [Washington Post, 5/2/1999; Federal Court of Canada, 6/22/2000, pp. 7-8 ; Crop Choice, 5/24/2002]

Monsanto employee Robert Chomyn requests and receives a sample of Percy Schmeiser’s harvested seeds from the Humboldt Flour Mills where Schmeiser brought his seeds for inoculation (see April 24, 1998). [Washington Post, 5/2/1999] The person who retrieves the sample is employee Morris Hofmann, who, according to Schmeiser, later admits (see After June 19, 2000) that he had either not supplied the seed, or that he supplied seed that was not Schmeiser’s. [Crop Choice, 5/24/2002] The samples provided to Monsanto have apparently been cleaned. (Schmeiser will later testify in court that the seeds he brought in for inoculation were bin-run seed, and thus full of chaff.) [Federal Court of Canada, 6/22/2000, pp. 19 ] Chomyn sends the seeds on April 28 to Aaron Mitchell, Monsanto’s lead investigator in the case against Schmeiser. [Washington Post, 5/2/1999] Percy Schmeiser is neither consulted beforehand nor informed of the event until 1999. [Monsanto Canada Inc. v. Percy Schmeiser, 3/29/2001, pp. 22 ]