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Bayer has now confirmed a buyout bid for agrichemical giant, Monsanto — the maker of Agent Orange, RoundUp, and genetically-modified crops — otherwise known as one of the most hated companies on the planet.
In a statement, Monsanto said Morgan Stanley & Co. is advising the company financially in the “potential acquisition,” but didn’t comment beyond basic information about what the deal might entail. The merger would combine Bayer and Monsanto into the largest agricultural supplier in the world.
On Tuesday, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine declared genetically engineered crops ‘safe’ for human consumption after a multi-year study, but still noted the benefits of labeling foods containing them.
However, one day prior to its declaration, a report cited by EcoWatch revealed extensive connections between the National Academies and biotech companies like Monsanto — which donated millions to the division responsible for the study on the safety of GM food.
Monsanto’s notoriety doesn’t end with shady agrichemicals — not by far. In March, the Portland, Oregon, city council voted unanimously to allow the city’s attorney to proceed with a lawsuit against the behemoth company for the contamination of various bodies of water with toxic PCBs. Seattle, Spokane, Berkeley, Oakland, San Diego, and San Jose have similar litigation pending for PCB contamination.
PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) were almost exclusively produced by Monsanto from 1935 to 1977, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). The ATSDR marked the company’s production figure at 99 percent.
The Environmental Protection Agency banned PCBs in 1979, deeming them probable human carcinogens. However, the chemical, commonly used in products like paint and ink, is still present in the environment, and it is seeping into the Bay through storm drains.
According to Monsanto’s own internal documents, the company knew about the environmental risks of PCBs since at least the 1960s, but chose to further market the chemicals rather than attempt to find a way to clean up the contamination.
Monsanto said that after studies determined that PCBs do not readily break down and can remain in the environment, its predecessor company decided to stop manufacturing them. The EPA banned their production in 1979.
They displayed the same terrifying symptoms; muscular convulsions — some developing into full blown seizures — fainting, vomiting, delirium and frothing at the mouth.
On Tuesday, nearly 100 people at an elementary school in Northern Peru were made violently ill when a plane fumigating nearby fields released weed-killer.
Reports stated that 92 school children and 3 teachers were exposed to the dangerous herbicide glyphosate, the active ingredient in US biotech giant Monsanto’s best-selling product, Roundup.
A health official in the municipality of Nepena said at a news conference that children in the school suffered a range of symptoms, including extreme vomiting, fainting, stomach pains, and headaches as a result of the exposure.
The crop duster was attempting to spray a sugar cane field owned by Grup Gloria, a large Peruvian agricultural company. Peru is required to tow the U.S. line on glyphosate due to a “free trade agreement,” which in this case states that a substance may be used in a food product until it is “proven unsafe.”
Government officials are trying to rule out herbicide poisoning; however, even before the autopsies are completed. They instead are blaming the children’s deaths, and the 33 additional illnesses, on a respiratory virus.
Marcial Gomez, leader of the National Peasant Federation, reported that the first symptoms were a high fever, and doctors in the area have not provided the correct level of care.
Gomez believes that the children lived very near vast fields of soybean crops that were sprayed with ‘a powerful herbicide’ to kill off the weeds before farmers planted, and this is what led to their deaths.
Monsanto is promoting another study that argues the there is no connection between cancer and Glyphosate, despite what the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) found.
The Millions Against Monsanto Campaign was started by the Organic Consumers Association in the mid 1990s to fight back against Monsanto and the other Biotech Bullies who are responsible for creating Agent Orange, PCBs, Roundup (glyphosate) and other toxins that threaten human health and the environment.
But the potential sale, which would create the world's largest supplier of seeds and agricultural chemicals, is part of a trend in agribusiness. Including Bayer and Monsanto, the six companies that dominate the industry are seeking to merge into a total of three entities to shave costs in their increasingly global competition against one other. DuPont and Dow Chemical have proposed a merger. The China National Chemical Corporation is also trying to purchase Syngenta, a Swiss producer of GMO seeds and crop chemicals. Last year, Monsanto tried, but failed, to purchase Syngenta for $46 billion.
originally posted by: GodEmperor
Good for Bayer,
now they can sell us poison food,
and sell the cure!!
originally posted by: makemap
Three words. One World Order.
Expect to see more merging of companies.
originally posted by: SmurfRider
a reply to: makemap
I wouldn't mind more companies merging. I hate capitalism, there's too many dang choices, especially in the detergent aisle at Target.
That being said, this acquisition would just be another great example of the mighty Corporotacracy shafting the citizens in any way it can. We will get the same BS but in a new Vanilla scented Bayer labeled can.
originally posted by: ketsuko
The way the folks around where my husband works talk, this won't fix anything. Bayer isn't much better in its own way than Monsanto is reputed to be.