A documentary on genetically modified crops, blocked for three years by the University of Manitoba, will be released this month at events across Canada, with the support of CAUT.
Environment and geography professor Stéphane McLachlan and his graduate student Ian Mauro will release Seeds of Change Nov. 18 in Ottawa at the National Farmers Union annual convention. There are also plans for the documentary to be shown in Montreal, Victoria, Vancouver and Salt Spring Island and featured at a forum on academic freedom Nov. 30 in Winnipeg.
The documentary is one result of a major research project undertaken by McLachlan and Mauro examining farmers’ experiences — both good and bad — with genetically modified crops.
According to McLachlan, the video summarizes both the benefits and risks associated with the use of GM technology and makes a controversial link between the advent of GM crops and rural decline. It also looks at the role of the biotech company Monsanto, a leading corporate promoter of GM crops.
Mauro said the concerns and experiences of farmers have been missing from the GM crop debate and their video attempts to fills that gap.
“Unfortunately, we had one problem — the university blocked its release,” he said.
The university claimed a long-established policy allows the university 50 per cent control of copyright in any video produced as part of academic research.
In the fall of 2002, university officials argued the video contained a host of controversial comments on the biotechnology industry and said they feared litigation by Monsanto. They also refused to allow the video’s release unless the researchers indemnified the university against all lawsuits, claiming the university did not have appropriate insurance coverage to protect against such threats.
“Now that the controversy has become public, the university has changed its position,” McLachlan said.
“The administration is now saying all the university needs is a statement in the documentary that the opinions expressed are not those of the university. They’re also asking to see copies of consent forms from people interviewed. If the university had given us these conditions three years ago, the problem would never have arisen.”
James Turk, executive director of CAUT, says this case is an object lesson in how a university’s claim to intellectual property ownership can interfere with academic freedom.