“The new owner of Monsanto, synonymous with deadly chemical warfare and genetically modified plants, is ditching the name.”1
The name of Monsanto (who developed the deadly herbicide Agent Orange during the Vietnam War), a company who has brazenly modified our food, will lose the name (and stigma) forever. (Too bad the evil they have done won’t likely stop but increase.)
Bayer said in a statement, “Monsanto will NO longer be a company name. The acquired products will retain their brand names and become part of the Bayer portfolio.”2
Last month, Bayer announced it would sell off $9 billion in assets- as required by the U.S. Department of Justice in order to allow the sale to proceed. (This act is supposed to ensure competitiveness.)
This rebranding is nothing new; tobacco maker Philip Morris became Altria and infamous private military contractor Blackwater renamed itself Xe (and then later Academi after it was acquired by private investors). It’s an attempt to erase our memories of the damage that’s been done.
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But we won’t forget its genetically modified seeds, falsely marketed to the world as something that would produce higher crop yields, which are highly resistant to the Roundup herbicide it ALSO sells. (How convenient.)
Bayer says the goal of the merger is to “double its business and spur innovation, drawing from the expertise of both companies,”3 pledging to use the merger to “produce more new products for farmers, faster, and to leverage its market position to enhance sustainability efforts.”4We shall see.
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The merger has been described by most of the world as a “marriage made in hell.” 5
There are still a lot of unknowns but one thing that is known is that we will watch this new company with the same discernment that we watched Monsanto with. Stay alert.
