BAYER CEO WARNS TIME’S UP FOR ROUNDUP
It's been quite a while since we've had to do a GMO Scrapbook update from our friends at I.G. Farbensanto, but when I saw this story shared by M.W., I knew we had to do it. For those of you relatively new to this website, however, first a little clarification: I just love nicknames and onomatopoiea. I have nicknames for everything I don't like. The covid potion-injections (when I'm not calling them potions and injections) are "quackcines". The whole covid scenario began as "plandemic" then became "scamdemic", and the two morphed into "planscamdemic". The Canadian Prime Minister is Mr. Carnage. The chairpersonette of the European (Dis)Union is Medusala von der Lyin'. Similarly, the big agriculture firms like Monsanto and Bayer I like to refer to by the morally suggestive and appropriate nicknames of Mon(ster)santo, and after that firm's purchase by the big German argibusiness firm Bayer (a former component of the notorious I.G. Farbenindustrie chemicals cartel), that nickname morphed into my nickname for all big "agribusiness": I.G. Farbensanto, a monniker that I believe does justice to the "corporate culture" of the new firm. (And I'm still working on nicknames for Big Pharma and its various "firms".)
So back to the blogging business of the day, because as I said, when M.G. sent along this article (for which we are grateful), I knew I would have to blog about it:
Now, what I just love about this is the headline: the chief executive officer of I.G. Farbensanto as "warning" everyone that the firm may stop making its well-known and lawsuit prone Roundup. (and yes, some of those suits were, I believe, litigated by the current Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.). That's like a previous head of I.G. Farbensanto, Carl Duisberg, warning the world that the firm might stop making explosives or Zyklon B poioson gas.
But why is I.G. Farbensanto "threatening" to end its production of Zyklon B poison gas and explosives Roundup? Well, it's because the firm doesn't have immunity from lawsuits that the harm to humanity caused by Zyklon B poison gas and explosives Roundup:
“Roundup has generated tens of billions of dollars in sales over time for Bayer and Monsanto, the biotech seed giant and developer of Roundup that Bayer acquired in 2018,” Thomas reported. “Bayer currently produces about 40% of the world’s glyphosate, which farmers spray across fields to tame crop-threatening weeds.”
“But over the past decade, the herbicide has also brought Bayer a wave of litigation, pressuring its share price and costing about $10 billion in payouts to plaintiffs,” Thomas reported. “In early March, Bayer told farmers, suppliers and retailers that it may stop selling Roundup, which would leave U.S. farmers reliant on imported glyphosate from China.”
“‘We’re pretty much reaching the end of the road,’ Bayer Chief Executive Bill Anderson said in an interview,” according to Thomas’ reporting. “‘We’re talking months, not years.'”
“Since taking over as Bayer’s CEO in 2023, Anderson has said one of his goals is to get the glyphosate litigation under control by 2026. He said that in some years, Roundup-related litigation expenses eclipse Bayer’s agriculture research-and-development budget,” Thomas reported. “‘We barely break even on glyphosate production and distribution, and if you then factor in litigation, you’re talking $2 billion to $3 billion in losses a year,’ Anderson said. Bayer said it brought in $2.8 billion from glyphosate sales last year.”
Reuters’ Rachel More reported Thursday that “Bayer is lobbying U.S. states to adjust their regulations in the battle to control costly litigation targeting its herbicide glyphosate but is also prepared for a possible exit from the market, the group’s CEO said on Thursday.”
In other words, they haven't learned a thing from the litigation. Mon(ster)santo, which sued farmers for using its GMO seeds for simply having Mon(ster)santo's seeds growing on their land, whether or not they actually planted them or not (never mind birds planting the seeds on their land in their droppings), sewed all sorts of bad karma, and is now reaping the whirlwind: their product, which they assured us was "safe", in spite of the lack of long term intergenerational testing when the assurances were given, proved not to be safe at all. In the meantime, they did all they could to eliminate heirloom seeds from the food supply altogether,
And now I.G. Farbensanto, the parent company, wants immunity from
litigation. If that sounds like the attitude of Big Pharma, you'd be
correct, because it's exactly identical: Give us immunity from lawsuits,
and we'll flood the market with all manner of concoctions and potions
cooked up by our witchdoctors research technicians in their bubbling, boiling cauldrons laboratories, and we'll manufacture corporate "studies" and "science" to "demonstrate" the safety of the new potion product.
There's only one problem: there's a new sheriff over at Health and Human Services, and he may have other ideas. And if he doesn't, then we herewith gently poke him in the ribs: "How about it, Mr. Kennedy? Isn't it time to revisit the whole GMO foods and heirloom seeds issue?"
See you on the flip side...
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