In Monsanto v. Schmeiser, (page 438) the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the building blocks of life are patentable. Schmeiser was found guilty of patent infringement for saving and planting canola seeds containing Monsanto’s engineered gene. In Hoffman v. Monsanto, a group of organic farmers in Saskatchewan launched a class action against Monsanto and Bayer Crop Science for contaminating their crops with genetically modified organisms. The Saskatchewan courts refused to certify the action, and the Supreme Court of Canada refused leave to appeal. The Supreme Court’s denial of leave leaves open the question of whether biotech companies are liable for damages caused by their transgenic products. The farmers were seeking damages in tort against the biotech companies for failing to control the dispersal of their products and for failing to prevent them from doing economic and environmental damage. If the case had been heard by the Supreme Court of Canada, it would have provided an answer to the question of what is the proper balance between the property rights granted to Monsanto and Bayer and the obligation to mitigate the negative effects of the exercise of those rights. Who should bear the social, economic, and environmental risks of biotechnological innovation? Who should have the responsibility of allocating the economic and environmental risks of biotechnological innovation?