'Five-Alarm Threat to Our Food Supply': Monsanto-Bayer Merger Advances

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.

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