FOLK HERO GRAIN FARMER TO SPEAK.(CAPITAL REGION)

Byline: MATT PACENZA Staff writer

A 72-year-old Canadian grain farmer who's become an international folk hero for his battle against agricultural giant Monsanto is coming to the Capital Region on Monday to talk about genetically modified crops.

Monsanto sued Saskatchewan canola farmer Percy Schmeiser in 1998 after he planted a variety that Monsanto had genetically engineered to tolerate a leading herbicide.

But Schmeiser hadn't planted the Monsanto crop by choice. It had blown onto his fields from neighbors who did. When he saved seed that fall to replant, some was Monsanto's.

Schmeiser, who's been growing canola on more than 1,000 acres …