Jim Gerritsen

Jim Gerritsen is an American farmer from Maine. Gerritsen owns and operates Wood Prairie Farm in Bridgewater, Maine, where he primarily grows organic Maine Certified seed potatoes and other organic seed since the farm was established in 1976. Gerritsen is President of the Maine-based national trade organization Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGATA). In March 2011, Gerritsen and other farmers filed a lawsuit (OSGATA et al v. Monsanto) [1] against Monsanto Corporation to prevent it from suing farmers who have been contaminated by their genetically modified seeds for patent infringement.[2]

In January 2014, the Supreme Court of the United States refused to hear OSGATA et al v. Monsanto, effectively ending the case.[3] However, American farmers gained partial protection with the ruling by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. which had issued an estoppel, ordering Monsanto not to sue farmers for patent infringement should they become contaminated by trace amounts of Monsanto's patented seed technology.

In November 2011, the Utne Reader named Gerritsen an "Organic Food Champion" and one of the magazine's "world visionaries" for that year.[4]

Gerritsen has connected the message of Occupy Wall Street to the loss of family farms and spoke at the Occupy Farmers March in New York City in December 2011.[5]

In January 2014, Gerritsen participated in the first ever Agrarian Elders Conference in Big Sur, CA.[6][7]

On Mother Earth Day 2014, Gerritsen spoke about the superiority of organic farming systems before the United Nations in New York City as a panel member of the 4th Interactive Dialogue of the General Assembly.[8]

References
  1. Organic Seed v. Monsanto, PubPat.
  2. Monsanto versus the people, Aljazeera. January 14, 2013.
  3. Goad, Meredith (January 13, 2014). "Supreme Court won't hear Maine farmers' appealed lawsuit against Monsanto". Portland Press Herald. Retrieved 28 July 2014.
  4. "Jim Gerritsen: Organic Food Champion". Utne Reader. November–December 2011. Retrieved 28 July 2014.
  5. Moskin, Julia (December 5, 2011). "A Maine Farmer Speaks to Wall Street". New York Times. Retrieved 28 July 2014.
  6. The Elders of Organic Farming, The New York Times. January 24, 2014.
  7. Agrarian Elders Conference Summary, Esalean Institute. January, 2014.
  8. Advantages & Challenges of Organic Farming: A Farming System Based on Harmony with Nature, Jim Gerritsen. April 22, 2014.
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