Bayer To Buy Out Monsanto...

[chickenman]

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...ign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20160914



International
Chemical Giant Bayer Agrees To Buy Monsanto For $66 Billion

September 14, 20169:02 AM ET

The Monsanto logo on a building at the firm Manufacturing Site and Operations Center near Antwerp, Belgium, on May 24. John Thys/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption John Thys/AFP/Getty Images
The Monsanto logo on a building at the firm Manufacturing Site and Operations Center near Antwerp, Belgium, on May 24.

John Thys/AFP/Getty Images
The German pharmaceutical and chemical giant Bayer says it will buy U.S. seed seller Monsanto for $66 billion in an all-cash deal that will create the world's largest supplier of seeds and agricultural chemicals.

The takeover offer, which Monsanto has accepted, is $4 billion more than Bayer had initially offered and a 44 percent premium over Monsanto's stock price on May 9, a day before negotiations began. Bayer says it will be taking on $57 billion in debt to finance the purchase, which is the largest-ever foreign acquisition by a German company.

The two companies have little product overlap, NPR's Jim Zarroli explained back when the deal was being negotiated. But regulators might still be wary of the purchase, based on the combined control the company would have over agricultural products.


The Salt
Big Seed: How The Industry Turned From Small-Town Firms To Global Giants
St. Louis-based Monsanto is the world's largest seller of seeds and the leading producer of genetically modified crops.

Bayer, meanwhile, might be familiar to many for its aspirin products — but it's also a major player in pesticides. As the Two-Way has reported, "the company is a German pharmaceutical and chemical powerhouse with 102,000 employees and $41 billion in revenue last year. Like Monsanto, it sells agricultural products such as seeds and pesticides. That's in addition to a plastics business, diagnostic imaging products, health products for animals and a biotech division."

The purchase is part of "a dramatic wave of consolidation among the companies that sell seeds and pesticides to farmers," as NPR's Dan Charles puts it.

"Two other such deals are currently in the works," Dan explains. "DuPont is merging with Dow, and the China National Chemical Corp. is buying Syngenta, which is currently the world's biggest seller of agricultural chemicals."

The Bayer-Monsanto deal might have interesting cultural consequences, as well

Monsanto, Dan notes, "has come to represent, in a shorthand way, lots of things that some people love to hate: genetically modified food; patents on seeds; lawsuits against farmers for saving and replanting those seeds; and corporate influence over government food policy."


The Salt
If Monsanto Disappears, Will It Matter?
Dan says there are a number of questions: Will people still march against Monsanto if Monsanto is no more? And how will Europe — famously opposed to GMOs — respond to the world's biggest GMO seller becoming an European company, instead of an American one?

Reuters reports that Bernstein Research analysts give the deal a 50/50 chance of being approved by regulators.

The analysts anticipate "political pushback" to the deal, including resistance from farmers, the wire service writes.

The deal comes as falling crop prices have caused a slide in farm profits, "which has cut into the amount that farmers can pay for chemicals and seeds," Jim tells our Newscast unit.

He says the deal is expected to be completed by the end of 2017. But should the deal fail to win regulatory approval, Bayer has agreed to pay a $2 billion fee.

 

[LocalGrowGuy]

Monsanto is moving on to bigger and better (more profitable) things like dicamba, so that's awesome. By awesome I mean horrible.

 

[SpiderK]

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the Soviet liberation of the Nazi death camp, Auschwitz. Elderly Holocaust survivors, former soldiers and world leaders have gathered in Poland to mark the 60th anniversary: “I would like to say to all the people on the Earth: This should never be repeated, ever,” said Maj. Anatoly Shapiro, 92, who led the first Soviet troops to enter Auschwitz.

Lest we forget an important corporate participant in the Holocaust – two excerpts shed light on the role of IG Farben, ie. Bayer.

IG Farben was the most powerful German corporate cartel in the first half of the 20th century and the single largest profiteer from the Second World War. IG (Interessengemeinschaft) stands for “Association of Common Interests”: IG Farben included BASF, Bayer, Hoechst, and other German chemical and pharmaceutical companies.

As documents show, IG Farben was intimately involved with the human experimental atrocities committed by Mengele at Auschwitz.

A German watchdog organization, the GBG Network, maintains copious documents and tracks Bayer Pharmaceutical activities.

Below is an excerpt from a BBC documentary about an Auschwitz survivor who for years tried to get compensation from the pharmaceutical giant that carried out medical experiments on her. Now living in Dundee, Scotland, she tells her story in a BBC documentary.

http://ahrp.org/auschwitz60-year-anniversary-the-role-of-ig-farben-bayer/

 

[SpiderK]

Bayer is implicated in the development of chemical weapons. During WW1 Bayer was involved in the development and manufacture of a range of poisonous gasses used in the trenches, including chlorine gas and mustard gas.[211] As part of IG Farben, Bayer were also involved in the development of the next generation of chemical warfare agents, toxic organophosphate compounds. Tabun was first examined for use as an insecticide in late 1936 in a program under the direction of Dr. Gerhard Schrader at the Bayer facility at Elberfeld/Wuppertal. An accidental exposure of Dr. Schrader and a laboratory assistant to Tabun vapors made it quite clear that this compound had potential military applications.[212] Tabun was then mass produced by IG Farben during WWII although it was never used as a weapon. Schrader was also responsible for the discovery of related, but more toxic, nerve agents including Sarin and Soman.[213] Whilst working on chemical weapons Schrader discovered the chemical compound E 605, the principle ingredient in the pesticide parathion. After the post-war dissolution of IG Farben, Schrader continued to develop pesticides for Bayer. After World War II, Bayer and other companies began to introduce a large number of organophosphorus compounds, including parathion, into the marketplace for insect control. The difficulty with organophosphates (OPs) is that they are neurotoxic due to their effects on acetycholinesterase, and unfortunately this enzyme occurs in humans as well as in insects.[214]

The links between chemicals developed as 'pesticides' with chemicals suitable for weapons has continued at Bayer. In 1989 it was revealed that Bayer hold a patent for a compound chemically identical to the VX gas used by the US military. The compound was discovered by Gerhard Schrader, and was patented in Germany in 1957, and in the US in 1961. Bayer claim that the compound was developed as a potential pesticide and that the US military application of the compound has nothing to do with them.[215]

Bayer, IG Farben and World War II: Slave Labour and Deadly Gas Bayer (along with BASF and Hoechst) was an original member of the IG Farben group. During WWII, IG Farben built a synthetic rubber and oil plant complex called Monowitz close to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Inmates worked as slave labour for IG Farben,[216] and when they were too weak to work they were killed in the gas chambers. IG Farben subsidiary Degesch manufactured Zyklon B, the gas used in the concentration camp gas chambers.[217]

Bayer head Carl Duisberg personally propagated the concept of forced labour during WW1.[218] The company placed itself under a large burden of guilt due to its heavy involvement in the planning, preparation and implementation of both world wars. The International War Crimes Tribunal pronounced the company guilty for its share of responsibility in the war and the crimes of the Nazi dictatorship.

On 29 July 1948, sentences for mass murder and slavery were handed down at the Nuremberg trials to twelve Farben executives. The longest sentence of only seven years was dealt out was to Dr. Fritz ter Meer, a top executive and scientist on the IG Farben managing board.[219]

After the war, IG Farben separated into three giant corporations: Bayer, Hoechst and BASF. On 1 August 1963, Bayer celebrated its 100th anniversary at the Cologne fairgrounds. The opening speech was delivered by Dr. Fritz ter Meer, not only out of prison but - a convicted mass murderer -elevated to the position of Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Bayer.[220]

More than eight million people had to do slave work for the Nazi war industry, and none ever received compensation from the companies or the government. David Fishel, one of the few survivors of the camp, sued the companies for compensation. When he was 13 he was forced to work for IG Farben carrying 50-kilo bags of coal and cement when he weighed only 75 pounds.[221]

Bayer, IG Farben and Human Experiments[222]

IG Farben also conducted experiments on humans. Eva Mozes Kor, among the 1,500 sets of twins experimented on by the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele, claims that IG Farben monitored and supervised medical experiments at the Nazi concentration camp where she was interned. She claims the experiments involved toxic chemicals that IG Farben (Bayer) provided. In some of the experiments, the lawsuit states, prisoners were injected with germs known to cause diseases, "to test the effectiveness of various drugs" manufactured by IG Farben. Mengele conducted genetic experiments there in an effort to create a super race of blonde, blue-eyed Aryans who would be born in multiple births. Both Kor and her sister survived their 10-month ordeal in the concentration camp and were liberated by Soviet troops in January 1945. They were nearly 10 years old. According to Irwin Levin (Kor's Lawyer), IG Farben paid Nazi officials during World War II for access to those confined in the camps and collaborated in Nazi experiments as a form of research and development. The lawsuit sought unspecified punitive damages and the recovery of profits it maintains IG Farben (Bayer) earned as a result of such research.

Eventually Eva Kor and various others were paid out of a fund put up by the German government and the companies. Bayer gave 100 million German Marks to the fund. The entire fund (totalling 10 billion German Marks) was a result of various American lawsuits - without the loss of reputation in the US the companies would never have agreed.

Bayer and the Congo War [223]

A recent report commissioned by the UN Secretary General stated that the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) centred on the control of five mineral resources, including colombite-tantalite or coltan.[224] Coltan is a hardening agent for metal used in the manufacture of electrical products. In October a report listed H.C. Starck (a wholly owned subsidiary of Bayer AG), as the buyer of over 80% of the coltan originating in the DRC.[225] By purchasing coltan from one or other of the warring factions in the DRC, H.C. Starck have been fuelling the two-year conflict. The fighting has killed over 250,000 people, and a million people have been displaced in East Congo.

 

[SmokyPockets]

Fuckin hell...

 

[chickenman]

Good info..

 

[xavier7995]

 

[Homesteader]

I posted this earlier, maybe you all can help me fill in the rest of the companies who are owned by Monsanto.
https://www.thcfarmer.com/community/threads/monsanto-now-bayer-owned-companies.84133/

 

[LocalGrowGuy]

this is why we can't have nice things.

 

[chickenman]

http://commondreams.org/news/2016/0...ur-food-supply-monsanto-bayer-merger-advances

Update...
'Five-Alarm Threat to Our Food Supply': Monsanto-Bayer Merger Advances
Chemical and GMO giants agree on takeover offer worth $66 billion; mega-merger to be reviewed by antitrust agencies worldwide

"This new mega corporation would be the world's biggest seed maker and pesticide company, defying important antitrust protections and giving it unacceptable control over critical aspects of our food supply." (Photo: John Thys/AFP/Getty Images)

Monsanto accepted Bayer's $66 billion takeover offer—the largest all-cash deal ever—on Wednesday morning.

While anti-trust agencies around the world review the proposed mega-merger, environmental and consumer advocates roundly condemned the creation of what will be the largest pesticide and GMO corporation in the world.

"This new mega corporation would be the world's biggest seed maker and pesticide company, defying important antitrust protections and giving it unacceptable control over critical aspects of our food supply—undermining consumer choice and the freedom and stability of farmers worldwide," said Anne Isakowitsch, head of international corporate watchdog SumOfUs.

"[...] these megadeals are being made to benefit the corporate boardrooms at the expense of family farmers, ranchers, consumers and rural economies."
—Andrew Johnson, National Farmers Union

"The merger of Bayer and Monsanto should make the connection between Big Pharma, Big Biotech, and Big Food all the more apparent to consumers," said Ronnie Cummins, director of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), in an email to Common Dreams.

"This may be a move to take pressure off the manufacturer of glyphosate, the most profitable pesticide in the world," Cummins added. "But it really doesn't matter who manufactures or sells glyphosate, or any other dangerous chemical. The damage to human health and the environment remains the same, as does our commitment to getting these chemicals out of our food system."

The merger between the two chemical behemoths has been long anticipated, and antitrust experts and environmental groups have been warning against the takeover for months.

A legal opinion by two former Justice Department officials released in August decried the merger as "a five-alarm threat to our food supply and to farmers around the world."

"[T]he antitrust enforcers must not allow this merger to proceed," the officials said.

Thanks to widespread protests and organizing from groups such as the National Farmers Union, next week the Senate Judiciary Committee is set to review the recent spate of consolidation—including deals such as Dow-Dupont and ChemChina-Syngenta—within the biotech industry.

"We are pleased that next week the Senate Judiciary Committee will be reviewing the alarming trend of consolidation in agriculture that has led to less competition, stifled innovation, higher prices and job loss in rural America," said National Farmers Union president Andrew Johnson. "We underscore the importance that all mergers, including this recent Bayer/Monsanto deal, be put under the magnifying glass of the committee and the U.S. Department of Justice."

"Wars were fought, lives lost, nations carved into holy lands [...] while Bayer and Monsanto sold chemicals as bombs and poisons and their brothers provided the loans to buy those bombs."
—Dr. Vandana Shiva

"We will continue to express concern that these megadeals are being made to benefit the corporate boardrooms at the expense of family farmers, ranchers, consumers, and rural economies," Johnson said.

Meanwhile, Sydney Peace Prize-winning environmental activist Dr. Vandana Shiva recently explored Bayer and Monsanto's longstanding relationship and dark history—pointing out that they worked together as chemical weapons manufacturers and war profiteers during several of the 20th century's bloodiest conflicts:

Monsanto and Bayer have a long history. They made explosives and lethally poisonous gases using shared technologies and sold them to both sides in the two world wars. The same war chemicals were bought by the Allied and Axis powers, from the same manufacturers, with money borrowed from the same bank.

MoBay [Monsanto and Bayer] supplied ingredients for Agent Orange in the Vietnam War. Around 20 million gallons of MoBay defoliants and herbicides were sprayed over South Vietnam. Children are still being born with birth defects, adults have chronic illnesses and cancers, due to their exposure to MoBay's chemicals. Monsanto and Bayer's cross-licensed Agent Orange resistance has also been cross-developed for decades. Wars were fought, lives lost, nations carved into holy lands—with artificial boundaries that suit colonization and resource grab—while Bayer and Monsanto sold chemicals as bombs and poisons and their brothers provided the loans to buy those bombs.

"The Farben family chemical cartel [that includes Bayer and Monsanto] was responsible for exterminating people in concentration camps," adds Shiva. "It embodies a century of ecocide and genocide, carried out in the name of scientific experimentation and innovation."

"Today, the poison cartel is wearing [genetic engineering] clothes and citing the mantra of 'innovation' ad nauseam. Hitler's concentration camps were an 'innovation' in killing," Shiva writes, "and almost a century later, the Farben family is carrying out the same extermination—silently, globally, and efficiently."

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License

 

[chickenman]

Pure awesome..Needs to be shared.as much as possible..

 

[chickenman]

A Deadly Union: Monsanto and Bayer’s Lethal Legacy
By Tami Canal On September 14, 2016 ·
http://www.march-against-monsanto.com/a-deadly-union-monsanto-and-bayers-lethal-legacy/


Leave it to Monsanto to be acquired by a corporation more vile than itself.

In case you missed it, Bayer has shelled out $66 billion dollars to purchase Monsanto, as well as the wrath of the world. The deal, which works out to $128/share, is expected to go through by the end of 2017. (Read more about that here.)

Monsanto and Bayer have a lot in common– from war crimes to attacks on women’s fertility. Monsanto’s crimes against humanity are well-documented…DDT, PCBs, Saccharin, Agent Orange, GMOs and glyphosate, but Bayer’s are lesser known. Given the news of the toxic merger, let’s review a brief summary of Bayer’s dark history.

German-based Bayer is one of the top pharmaceutical/chemical companies in the world. Founded in Barmen, Germany in 1863 by Friedrich Bayer and Johann Friedrich Weskcott, today Bayer is most popular for its aspirin, but also manufactures diabetes medications, various birth control products, pet products like Advantix and other consumer goods.

In 1925, Bayer merged with BASF and Hoechst to become the massive German entity known as Interessengemeinschaft Farben (IG Farben, for short).

BAYER’S ROLE IN THE HOLOCAUST

The Holocaust and death camps like Auschwitz are synonymous with World War II. Numerous crimes against humanity took place during this dark time in history, specifically the mass executions against the Jewish population. It has been estimated that up to six thousand Jewish men, women and children were gassed daily in Nazi death camps.

As reported by GMwatch.org, IG Farben manufactured and supplied the poisonous cyanide-based pesticide (Zyklon B) that was used to annihilate more than a million people at German extermination camps. The form of Zyklon B that was used in the gas chambers was intentionally made odorless. IG Farben also supplied the Methanol that was used to burn the bodies.

During his address to The Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal in 1946, Chief Prosecutor Telford Taylor declared that “These companies, not the lunatic Nazi fanatics, are the main war criminals. If the guilt of these criminals is not brought to daylight and if they are not punished, they will pose a much greater threat to the future peace of the world than Hitler if he were still alive.”

Despite the gravity of the crimes and helping Hitler to gain power (IG Farben was the biggest contributor to Hitler’s election campaign), a number of those convicted of slavery and mass murder were given back positions of power at Bayer, Hoechst and BASF.

BAYER’S DANGEROUS CONTRACEPTIVES

1. Yaz/Yasmine

Approved by the FDA in 2006, Yaz birth control uses a synthetic hormone called drospirenone, or DSP. Hundreds of women have died from complications from the contraceptive, which has proven to be unreasonably dangerous. Phillipp Mimkes, a Board Member of CBG wants the drug pulled from the market, “The Coalition Against BAYER Dangers, which has been pointing out the dangers of Yaz for years, demands a ban on all contraceptive pills with a profile of increased side effects.”

Numerous side effects have been reported as a result of Yaz including:

-adrenal insufficiency
-blood clots and deep vein thrombosis (DVT)
-breast, cervical or uterine cancer
-depression
-gallbladder disease
-heart attack
-kidney problems
-liver disease or failure
-stroke
-death

2. Mirena IUD

The convenience of opting out of a daily birth control pill comes at a high price. Women who have the Mirena implant have reported dangerous side effects including: birth complications, ectopic pregnancy, perforation of the uterus and chronic infections. Thousands of complaints were filed with the FDA regarding the dangerous device, prompting the agency to release a statement in May of 2008 demanding Bayer clearly highlight the dire risks of the Mirena IUD. The FDA also made Bayer label their products honestly, warning women “who choose Mirena about the risks of ectopic pregnancy, including the loss of fertility.”

1 out of every 1,000 women who receive the Mirena IUD will experience an ectopic pregnancy, a potentially life-threatening complication for the mother. (Source)

3. Essure

Essure is a permanent surgical sterilization procedure developed by Conceptus Inc., a subsidiary of Bayer AG. The Essure is a metal coil device which blocks the fallopian tubes, preventing fertilization.

Erin Brockovich has extensively documented the horrific complications associated with Essure. Reports of debilitating headaches, nausea, allergic response to the nickel the device is made of, hysterectomies, colon perforation due to the device moving are just some of the troubling problems resulting from the procedure. To learn more or to share your Essure story, please visit here.

More than 10,000 lawsuits are pending against Bayer and its Essure device.

PRODUCTS AND AFFILIATES OF BAYER

Boycott, boycott, boycott!!

1. Adalat
2. Ademapas
3. Adengo
4. Advantage
5. Advantan
6. Advantix
7. Advocate
8. Afrin
9. Aleve
10. Alion
11. Alka Seltzer
12. Avelox
13. Basta
14. Baycox Iron
15. Bayer Advanced/Bayer Garden
16. Baytril
17. Belt
18. Bepanthen
19. Berocca
20. Betaferon
21. Canesten
22. Catosal
23. Cipro
24. Claritin
24. Confidor
25. Coppertone Sunscreen
26. Corvus
27. Credenz
28. CropStar
29. Desonate
30. Diane 35
31. Dr. Scholl’s
32. Drontal
33. Elevit
34. Esplanade
35. Eylea
36. FiberMax Cotton
37. Flint
38. Fludora
39. Fox Fungicides
40. Gadovist 1.0
41. Gastrogafin
42. Gaucho
43. Glucobay
44. Iberogast
45. Interface Fungicides
46. Invigor (Canola seeds)
47. Jaydess
48. Kogenate
49. K-Othrine
50. Levitra
51. Liberty
52. Luna Fungicides
53. Magnevist
54. MaxForce Insecticides
55. Medrad Advanta
56. Medrad Certo
57. Medrad eCoil
58. Medrad Intego
59. Medrad Mark 7 Arterion
60. Medrad MRXperion
61. Medrad Spectris Solaris EP
62. Medrad Stellant
63. Medrad XDS
64. Miralax
65. Mirena
66. Movento
67. Nativo
68. Nebido
69. Nexavar
70. Nunhems
71. One-A-Day Vitamins
72. Pistol Herbicides
73. Poncho
74. Primovist
75. Priorin
76. Profender Spot-On
77. Prosaro Fungicides
78. Redoxin
79. Rennie
80. Serenade Fungicides
81. Seresto
82. Signature Fungicides
83. Sivanto Insecticides
84. Skinoren
85. Stivarga
86. Stoneville
87. Stratego Fungicides
88. Supradyn
89. Ultravist
90. Veraflox
91. Xarelto
92. Xofigo
93. Xpro Fungicides
94. Yasminelle
95. Yasmine
96. Yaz
97. ZelNate

 

[Homesteader]

Now you can add Bioag and botanicare to the list.

 

[chickenman]

Have nothing on the list and don't even know what most of that stuff is..