For related articles and more information, please visit OCA’s Genetic Engineering page and our Millions Against Monsanto page.

Jim Gerritsen, a Maine organic potato farmer with a decades-long record of community involvement and activism, has been named by the editors of Utne Reader to the magazine’s 2011 list of “25 People Who Are Changing the World.”

Gerritsen was selected for his ongoing work leading efforts by independent family farmers to protect themselves from the threat of Monsanto litigation related to the corporation’s patents on genetically modified seeds, an effort he sees as critical to the preservation of organic farming itself and organic foods as a choice for consumers and their families.

Each year, Utne Reader selects 25 people “who possess an inspiring combination of imagination, determination and energy,” said Utne Reader’s editor-in-chief, David Schimke in a statement about the 25 visionaries. “These are people who don’t just think out loud, but who walk their talk on a daily basis.”

Gerritsen, who grows organic seed potatoes on his family’s Wood Prairie Farm in northern Maine, is president

of the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (www.osgata.org), the national membership trade organization of the organic seed community, lead plaintiff in the OSGATA et al v. Monsanto lawsuit, which is currently in pre-trial procedural motions.

OSGATA is joined in the lawsuit by 82 other family farmers, seed businesses and agricultural organizations. The lawsuit asserts that Monsanto’s patents on transgenic (gene-spliced) seed fail to meet the “social utility” requirement of patent law and are therefore invalid.