Bayer Monsanto Merger Will Steal The Marijuana Industry

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guymandude

guymandude

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this article, in full, is here:


"The recent takeover bid of U.S. Seed company Monsanto by German-based drug and crop chemical maker Bayer could mean the death of the infant marijuana industry and the birth of genetically modified corporate cannabis.

Marijuana industry insiders believe that the international corporation will destroy the industry, genetically modify the seeds and rob people of the diversity and natural benefits of cannabis.

Besides the health fears associated with GMOs, the company also plans to supply the necessary chemicals and fertilizers to attack marijuana seed breeders in the same way that Monsanto used RoundUp to attack farmers worldwide.

Bayer’s history includes making chemical weapons, providing material support (as part of the Farben group) for Hitler’s genocidal war crimes, using slave labor, and creating toxic and deadly products.

Bayer was the first company to mass produce and mass market heroin worldwide.

Monsanto has similarly made or contributed to the making of harmful products including saccharin, PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), nuclear weapons, polystyrene, DDT, Agent Orange, RoundUp (glyphosate), bovine growth hormone (rGBH), Aspartame, GMOs, and dioxin.


Big Buds reports:

As you know from previous BigBudsMag.com articles, Monsanto makes poisons, GMOs, and other products proven to harm people and the environment.

Monsanto has a deep business partnership with Scotts Miracle-Gro, a convicted corporate criminal– and Scott’s Miracle-Gro is trying to take over the marijuana industry.

In the past two years, a Scotts Miracle-Gro front group purchased General Hydroponics, Botanicare, and Gavita.

Scotts Miracle-Gro CEO Jim Hagadorn says he intends to spend as much as HALF A BILLION DOLLARS to buy out the cannabis industry.

Major hydroponics nutrients, lighting, soil, and other grow equipment manufacturers report they’ve also been offered takeover bids by Scotts Miracle-Gro or its “Hawthorne” front company.

One major hydroponics lighting manufacturer told BigBudsMag.com that Scotts Miracle-Gro wanted to buy most of their bulbs and sell them at Home Depot and other discount stores.

“They indicated they want to bypass hydroponics retail stores,” the hydroponics lighting rep told us. “When we said we won’t get in bed with them to hurt the hydro industry, they said, ‘Well, we could just buy your whole company like we did with Gavita and do whatever we want.’”

Maximum Yield Magazine, which bans marijuana hydroponics nutrients company Advanced Nutrients from its indoor gardening expo events, welcomed a Monsanto affiliate into its Boston gardening expo several years ago.

This despite the fact that Monsanto and Scotts Miracle-Gro have long been partners with the DEA to produce poisons used in the wars against marijuana and coca plants.

Bayer has a business partnership with GW Pharmaceuticals, a UK-based company that grows marijuana, extracts compounds from it, and then turns the compounds into pharmaceutical medicines.

Bayer is the licensed distributor for GW’s Sativex®, an expensive medical cannabis extract spray that patients say is less effective than growing and using their own buds.

Like Monsanto and Scotts Miracle-Gro, Bayer is a pathologically harmful corporation.

Bayer’s history includes making chemical weapons, providing material support (as part of the Farben group) for Hitler’s genocidal war crimes, using slave labor, and creating toxic and deadly products.

In 1898, Bayer trademarked the opiate diacetylmorphine, giving it the name heroin.

Bayer was the first company to mass produce and mass market heroin worldwide.

The company falsely claimed that heroin was great for children as a harmless curative for coughs and digestive disorders.

Monsanto has similarly made or contributed to the making of harmful products including saccharin, PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), nuclear weapons, polystyrene, DDT, Agent Orange, RoundUp (glyphosate), bovine growth hormone (rGBH), Aspartame, GMOs, and dioxin.

When Monsanto is called out for creating harm to humans and the environment, the corporation responds with denials and propagandistic public relations campaigns, and attempts to intimidate its critics.

Michael Straumietis, founder and owner of hydroponics nutrients company Advanced Nutrients, has constantly warned the marijuana community about Monsanto, Scotts Miracle-Gro, GMO marijuana, and corporate takeover of the marijuana industry.

“Monsanto and Bayer have an agreement to share information about genetically modifying crops including cannabis,” Straumietis notes. “Bayer is partnered with GW Pharmaceuticals, which grows its own proprietary marijuana genetics. You can bet Monsanto and Bayer are interested in creating GMO marijuana.”

Several years ago, Straumietis reports, billionaire investor George Soros, who owns 500,000 shares of Monsanto stock, worked behind the scenes via a “public interest” front group to legalize cannabis research in Uruguay.

Straumietis says South American governmental insiders report that Monsanto is working there on genetically-modified cannabis, along with pharmaceuticalizing THC, other cannabinoids, and terpenoids."

Let me ask you fellow growers this: Are you to support this? Personally, I will never buy anything from Scotts, General Hydroponics, Botanicare, Gavita, Monsanto or Bayer.

there are plenty of alternatives for nutrients and lights, people. This corporate bullshit is evil. They will force us to forever be underground. Fight for your freedom. Stop buying products from these companies.
 
guymandude

guymandude

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after doing more research last night, GW Pharmaceuticals is in on this shit too.

and here's who owns GW Pharma:

and those of you still burying your heads in the sand this is what that means:




The Rothschilds account for over $500 trillion. Yes that's with a T. That's about how much they are worth. They own the central bank in every country of the world except maybe 3 or 4. I know North Korea and some other 3rd world places. After we went into Iraq and Afghanistan, they were able to establish their banks there. These are the people who hold the strings on our puppet politicians.

the state of NY partnered with GW Pharma for it's medical cannabis.
http://www.pharmaceutical-technology...icine-4359924/



so here's the Medical Cannabis laws of NY:



patients cannot grow their own meds. They cannot smoke their meds. There will be only 5 producers of medical cannabis state wide and 20 dispensaries. It's all being handed over to big corporations and the Rothschilds will have a major hand in the industry.

We, the real growers will not be allowed to start businesses. It's all getting handed over to whomever lines politicians pockets and that is big corporations. Also, small hydro shops will be forced out of business.

If this Bayer acquisition of Monsanto goes through, we will be prosecuted more harshly, because we will then be keeping money out of the hands of these big corporations.

get it?

you can already buy just about anything hydroponic and grow related on Amazon, 1000 bulbs has added a huge section on it's webpage for a lot more than just HID bulbs. The small local hydro store cannot compete with the prices being offered on the web. One of the places I go to has begun price matching to keep up, but when i went in to buy soe stuff, I showed the the web price and it was literally $2 over what the owner of the store paid for it to put it on his shelf. Hydro shops will begin to fall like dominoes.

Speculation has it that legalization in California will see the disappearance of legal medical cannabis. The greed of o0ur government wants the tax dollars from legal weed, not the lesser amount of taxes from medical. It's already happening in Oregon, according to a friend of mine who lives and grows medical there.
 
LocalGrowGuy

LocalGrowGuy

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Speculation has it that legalization in California will see the disappearance of legal medical cannabis. The greed of o0ur government wants the tax dollars from legal weed, not the lesser amount of taxes from medical. It's already happening in Oregon, according to a friend of mine who lives and grows medical there.
Do you have anything concrete or better than anecdotal evidence? What does your friend say is happening in Oregon?

'disappearance of legal medical cannabis' doesn't seem feasible and this is the first time I have seen or heard that phrase with regards to california or oregon medical mj. I hope I'm wrong.
 
guymandude

guymandude

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my friend in Oregon has stated that all dispensaries must declare if they are going to be Rec or Med by Jan 1. They will not be able to do both. Obviously the money will be in recreational. They are trying to push medical out so the state can maximize their tax income.

He's very active with various city councils and at the state level as well.

also, they were charging a very reasonable amount to have your buds tested in a lab. According to what he told me last week, testing prices by the state lab has gone up about 1000%, from a hundred and change and needing a gram of oil to test to over 1200 and needing much more product for the test.

we will be forced out. the government is coming and they are not here to help
 
guymandude

guymandude

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i've been hearing commercials from lawyers looking for people with nonhodgkins lymphoma that have been exposed to Round up. There could be some justice after all.
 
LocalGrowGuy

LocalGrowGuy

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i've been hearing commercials from lawyers looking for people with nonhodgkins lymphoma that have been exposed to Round up. There could be some justice after all.
The only winners in a class action lawsuit are the lawyers. Bayer and monsatano have deeper pockets that most people realize. Haven't they been practicing law suits on their customers and their neighbors since the beginning?
 
MrBulldops

MrBulldops

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Its always easier for a corporation to go to arbitration to pay off their damages while assuming no liability though. Why allow these class action suits to go in front of a judge? To create presidence in the way these cases are heard.

I would worry more about the long term damage that RoundUp causes. The EU has banned use of RoundUp in its member countries due to its main ingrediant is a known cancer causing agent Glyphosate. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.th...fuses-limited-use-of-glyphosate?client=safari
 
guymandude

guymandude

605
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lawyers are looking for people diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma that were exposed to Round Up.

Round Up also causes problems with the bacteria (normal flora) that live in the your intestines. Those bugs help you to digest your food. When they don't function properly, you don't properly digest yoru food, your intestines become inflammed and that can lead to cancer.
 
nazarbattu

nazarbattu

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There are more companies collaborating to compete with Monsanto http://brightgreengroup.com/ these guys appear to have more ethical/moral compass...splicing plants with plants not animal genes into plants but I'm sure there will be positives and negatives...time will tell what impact 40,000,000 plants a year production will have. They/brightgreengroup will have two geneticist from India working with them to customize plants for desired cannabinoid profile...
 
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guymandude

guymandude

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yeah, I'm on the fence about Bright Green Group.

I just want to be able to start my own company and have a boutique to sell bud/etc.

the way things are going, law makers won't let that happen
 
Psychonaut47

Psychonaut47

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yeah, I'm on the fence about Bright Green Group.

I just want to be able to start my own company and have a boutique to sell bud/etc.

the way things are going, law makers won't let that happen
What state, or country do reside in?
 
RudyClosGrow

RudyClosGrow

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The only way to fight these groups is through the legislative process. Keeping pressure on legislators to maintain a medical cannabis designation or we may be swallowed up in the recreational craze and corporate money along with big pharma will happily control medical cannabis.
 
RudyClosGrow

RudyClosGrow

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Just yesterday my neighbors daughter (3) began having seizures and is in the hospital to find out why. If they are unable to control without heavy medications her only healthy alternative is Cannabis. Fortunately she'll have me as her CBD connection, if it is necessary. I've been converting my crop to Tinctures, especially for children with seizure disorders.
 
LocalGrowGuy

LocalGrowGuy

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Why the debate over the Bayer-Monsanto deal is so important for the future of farming
http://www.vox.com/2016/9/20/12988616/bayer-monsanto-dupont-dow-agriculture-mergers-innovation


One of the biggest stories in agriculture right now is the jaw-dropping consolidation among companies that sell the world’s seeds, pesticides, and fertilizers.

Currently, there are six companies that dominate the biotech seed and agrochemical industries: Bayer, Monsanto, Dow, DuPont, Syngenta, and BASF. But in recent months, DuPont has proposed merging with Dow, Bayer has struck a deal to buy up Monsanto, and Chinese giant ChemChina is buying Syngenta. If these mergers all go through, the three biggest agribusinesses would sell 62 percent of the world’s patented seeds and 62 percent of all pesticides.

As I detailed earlier, the biggest worry here is that a lack of competition could stifle the innovation needed to help farmers keep growing enough food to support a world population that will soon reach 9 billion. These giant oligopolies could also, potentially, raise prices on farmers who have already been battered by falling incomes in recent years.

Both US and EU regulators have begun scrutinizing these proposed mergers closely. And, on Tuesday, Congress jumped into the fray. The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on "Consolidation and Competition in the U.S. Seed and Agrochemical Industry," and various politicians sounded alarmed about these growing agribiz Goliaths.

"To me, it looks like this consolidation wave has become a tsunami," said Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA). "When does the size of companies and concentration in the market reach the tipping point, so much that a market becomes anti-competitive?"

That’s the multi-billion-dollar question, isn't it? The CEOs of the various agribusinesses involved had an opportunity to state their case in favor of the mergers, and critics laid out a detailed case against. So I thought I’d pull out the strongest arguments from the pro- and anti-merger sides.

How companies are defending these mergers: They’ll boost innovation!

At the Senate hearing, the companies themselves focused on the pro-innovation case for these mergers, and that’s worth hearing out.

The basic logic goes like this: It takes a lot of work and money to develop new crop varieties that have higher yields, or can withstand disease, or are more convenient for farmers. Take Monsanto’s Roundup Ready crops, which have been genetically modified to withstand the pesticide glyphosate (e.g., Roundup), which in turn makes it easier for farmers to spray their fields. Developing that herbicide-resistant trait for corn, soy, and cotton cost hundreds of millions of dollars in experimentation, testing, and jumping through regulatory hurdles. (Monsanto patented both seeds and pesticide, though those original patents have since expired.)

In the future, we’re likely to need innovations even more radical than that. The world’s population is likely to soar past 9 billion by 2050, and crop yields will have to rise some 60 percent if we want to grow sufficient food for all those people on existing farmland. That’s a staggering challenge, and it could take billions of dollars into everything from genetic engineering to improving traditional agricultural methods — all in order to boost yields, develop drought tolerance, improve soil fertility, and so on.

At the hearing, the CEOs argued that merging agribusinesses with different areas of expertise would help facilitate that sort of innovation. Here’s DuPont executive vice president James C. Collins Jr. defending the DuPont/Dow Chemical merger: "By combining our complementary strengths, such as DuPont’s seed expertise with Dow’s trait development, we will be able to respond faster and more effectively to the changing conditions that impact farmers."

Here is Syngenta CEO Erik Fyrwald on his company’s proposed merger with ChemChina: "ChemChina will provide Syngenta with greater capital to further its current industry-leading R&D programs. … Because ChemChina is not publicly traded, this transaction will allow Syngenta to focus more intensely on long-term R&D instead of having to focus on satisfying short-term investor expectations and demands. It will also give Syngenta better access to emerging markets."

And Monsanto’s chief technology officer, Robert Fraley, argued that agribusinesses needed to scale up to the size of Silicon Valley’s tech giants: "Fifteen years ago, we spent $300 million on R&D. Today we spend $1.5 billion. That sounds like a big number. But compare that against other data and life science companies like Microsoft, Apple, Pfizer and Merck who each invest over $10 billion per year in R&D. To realize a step-change, agricultural companies will need to invest more."

So that’s the basic case from the company side: The world has huge food challenges to overcome. Right now, private companies are where the vast majority of the R&D occurs. (To put things in perspective, the USDA’s agricultural research arm spends about $350 million per year. If the Monsanto and Bayer merge, their R&D budget will be $2.8 billion.) And big, diversified corporations can tackle these research problems more adroitly than smaller companies can.

The case against mergers: They may actually hurt innovation

Now, not everyone’s convinced by this pro-innovation case. At the hearing, Diana Moss, president of the American Antitrust Institute, laid out five big counterpoints to consider:

1) For starters, there’s not a lot of great historical evidence that consolidation has led to greater innovation in agriculture. In fact, the opposite might even be the case.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, she noted, R&D spending among biotech firms as a percentage of sales boomed, as new traits such as insect resistance were being widely introduced. In response, the industry went through a wave of consolidation, with bigger firms like Monsanto buying up smaller companies and patents.

By the late 2000s, however, R&D spending as a percentage of sales had actually slumped back down to mid-1990s levels. "This conclusion," Moss noted, "calls into question long-standing arguments that concentration is needed to generate economies of scale in R&D."

2) Moss also pointed out that while crop yields have been going up over time — a point of pride among biotech companies — seed prices have increased even faster. This, she noted, was "the very problem that biotechnology is purportedly designed to solve." The worry here, in other words, is that while these massive agribusinesses have had R&D successes, the lack of competition has limited the actual benefit to farmers (and hence consumers).

3) Moss quibbled with the claim that companies could get more research and scientific breakthroughs by combining their research divisions. That might be true, but a big worry is that you’d have fewer labs working on a set number of problems in agriculture — which would actually reduce the odds of a breakthrough. Key quote:

The time and cost associated with performing R&D and field-testing and obtaining regulatory approvals create a long pipeline to commercialization. And once through the pipeline, biotechnology firms must market new technology to farmers where crop planning and switching costs increase the time associated with adoption of new technology on a larger scale. In innovation markets, therefore, the importance of maintaining multiple parallel in R&D paths is paramount. As one farmer put it: "The more people you have researching, the better off you are at finding something."

4) Moss also pointed out that a great deal of innovation in seed and crop varieties comes from different competitors working together to "stack" traits. So if Dow has developed a trait that allows cotton to be resistant to worms, and Monsanto has developed a trait that allows cotton to be Roundup Ready, they can join forces, through cross-licensing agreements, to produce cotton with both traits.

But this system works best when there are lots of companies competing against each other. "Farmers benefit most when there are competing stacks to choose from," Moss argued. "Competition maximizes the potential for numerous collaborations and minimizes incentives to refuse to license or to impose discriminatory restrictions in technology licensing agreements. Moreover, competition limits incentives for just a few large players in a tight oligopoly to tacitly or even explicitly ‘agree’ not to compete."

5) All these mergers could make it much harder for smaller companies to break into agriculture with new innovations. Big, vertically integrated firms that sell both seeds and pesticides can create integrated products that require farmers to buy the full package — and lock out small competitors.

The basic thread running through these five points is that competition is crucial for fostering innovation, as farmers have more choices and companies have more incentive to create the most appealing seeds and pesticides for them. Reducing this competitive dynamic is likely to swamp any benefits from increased synergies from mergers.

By the way, Roger Johnson, president of the National Farmers Union, raised a related concern. Right now, there are so many regulatory hurdles to bring new biotech products to market that it’s hard for any but the largest firms to compete. "The unpredictable and lengthy regulatory review process, particularly in the biotechnology space, encourages greater consolidation in the sector," he noted. So that’s another piece to consider here.

Other worries: Consolidation could mean higher prices for farmers

Also at the hearing was Bob Young, chief economist for the American Farm Bureau Federation, who explained the economic pressures that were leading to the mergers — and also pointed out reason for concern.

Thanks to a glut in global food production and drop in commodity prices, incomes for US farmers have been plummeting — from a total of $123.8 billion in 2013 down to just $71.5 billion in 2016. As such, farmers have been spending less on seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides. That’s hurting sales at these large companies, who are basically looking at mergers as a way to staunch the bleeding and boost market share and growth while they try to spend billions developing new products.

That said, Young was worried that these new behemoths would be in a position to raise prices in certain markets where they control the vast majority of seed or pesticide sales. "Everyone’s knee-jerk reaction is to think that increased concentration will lead to higher prices for these inputs," he said. "Knees tend to jerk reflexively, but sometimes they jerk with reason."

Roger Johnson of the National Farmers Union was even more blunt: "It is easier to fix prices when there are fewer market participants." He noted, among other things, that biotech seed companies have increasingly used their commanding market position to reduce choices among farmers and push them into preferred products: "Dominant firms are reducing the availability of non-transgenic varieties and increasing the price of the remaining non-transgenic varieties to discourage the use of those varieties. In Illinois, a survey found that 40 percent of farmers did not have access to any non-transgenic high yielding seed corn."

Johnson ended his presentation by noting that consolidation wasn’t just a concern in the seed, chemical, and fertilizer industry. It was also happening in areas like high-tech precision planting, in meat-processing, in meat-packing. "Farmers and ranchers bear the brunt of consolidation across the supply chain," he said.

The Senate has asked US regulators to give these mergers extra scrutiny

Given all these concerns — and the sheer complexity of the issues involved here — Grassley said in his opening statement that he wants these recent proposed deals to undergo special scrutiny: "In early August, I asked that the two antitrust agencies [the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission] collaborate, as appropriate, in their analysis of the agricultural biotechnology and seed industry, to ensure that the multiple transactions under consideration do not substantially lessen competition. I urged them not to review these transactions in a vacuum because of the already concentrated agriculture industry."

And it looks like Grassley has gotten a positive response so far: "I just heard back from these agencies last week that they’ll be heeding my advice and collaborating, as appropriate, on their analysis of the impact of the proposed mergers in the agricultural sector."

"I guess," he added, "that’s somewhat reassuring — if the regulators actually take a hard look at both the efficiencies and benefits the companies believe will result from these transactions, as well as the concerns raised by independent and smaller players in the market, farmers and consumers."
 
epitome

epitome

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Can you help me research, point me in a direction of connecting the DOTS between Bright Green Group of Companies of Canada with one of the Monopoly companies above ya know Monsanto , Dow & Dupont and them
@LocalGrowGuy
 
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