Brussels authorizes Bayer to buy Monsanto
- Ignoring the collection of signatures and citizen protests, the European Union has authorized Bayer to acquire Monsanto. In this way, it will grow and become the largest chemical fertilizer company in the world.
Brussels, however, has issued a conditional permit. Bayer will first have to make the promised divestments and then maintain the number of competitors in the sector. To reduce competition, it will sell its seed and plant protection business to its competitor BASF.
The seed business
The portal Carro de Combate offers a reading of the research on Monsanto, in which it explains how the multinational has made its way to the commercialization of transgenic products.
For centuries, they kept some seeds produced by farmers who had the best appearance to plant the next crop. This practice changed radically since the 1980s, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that living organisms are also patentable.
A decade earlier, Monsanto had discovered glyphosate: it was such a potent herbal poison that, in addition to weeds, it often destroyed the entire crop. At that time, Monsanto began to produce foods that could tolerate this herbal poison and began to market transgenic foods.
Since then, multinationals in the sector have managed to impose laws that benefit GMOs through the International Union for the Protection of Plant Breeders (UPOV).
According to Carro de Combate’s research, the international seed business has now moved $6.276 billion over three years, with the figure expected to double this year.
José Ramón Olarieta Alberdi is a doctor in agronomist engineering and professor at the University of Lleida, as well as a member of the Catalan association Som what Sembrem.El last year published a book on transgenics: Are GMOs really safe and necessary? In April, Leitza and... [+]
Laborantza-industrian egin den inoizko akordiorik handiena gelditzeko eskatu diote milioi bat lagunek Europari: Monsanto eta Bayer enpresek indarrak batuko dituzte galarazi ezean. Hazi transgenikoen eta industria farmazeutikoaren arteko lotura 2016tik datorren arren, azken... [+]
Europako Batzordeak iragarri du sakon aztertu nahi duela Bayer konpainiak Monsanto erosteak kalterik egingo ote dion pestiziden eta hazien merkatuari. Bruselak adierazi du fusio-operazioa burutzeak bi arlo horietako munduko enpresarik handiena sortuko lukeela, eta horrek... [+]
Egun erabiltzen diren hazi hibridoak multinazional espezializatuek soilik egin ditzakete, eta horien liderra Monsanto da. Merkatura zabaltzen dituena, berriz, Heinz multinazional boteretsua da. Bide beretik jarraituz gero, elikadura merkatu pribatuen eskuetan bukatuko duela... [+]
Garagar transgenikoa baliatuko al dute aurki Heineken eta Carlsberg garagardoek? Horren beldur dira hainbat erakunde, Europako Patenteen Bulegoak bi enpresa horiei adjudikatu baitizkie genetikoki eraldatutako garagarra baliatzea ahalbidetuko lieketen patenteak.