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No More 'Miracles From Molecules': Monsanto's Name Is Being Retired (reuters.com)

Flexagon writes: Germany's Bayer announced today that in its link-up with Monsanto, it's retiring the "Monsanto" name, and with it the name of the company that originally sponsored Disneyland's "Adventure Thru Inner Space" attraction. The $63 billion takeover will wrap up on Thursday. "Bayer will remain the company name. Monsanto will no longer be a company name. The acquired products will retain their brand names and become part of the Bayer portfolio," it said.

The decision to retire the name is a smart business move. "These days Monsanto is shorthand for, as NPR's Dan Charles has put it, 'lots of things that some people love to hate': Genetically modified crops, which Monsanto invented," reports NPR. "Seed patents, which Monsanto has fought to defend. Herbicides such as Monsanto's Roundup, which protesters have sharply criticized for its possible health risks. Big agriculture in general, of which Monsanto was the reviled figurehead."

33 of 236 comments (clear)

  1. Toxic brand by jawtheshark · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's a toxic brand: I'm surprised it took that long. I mean, Bayer isn't called "IG Farben" for good reason. Bayer associates with "aspirin", which is good, right!?!

    --
    Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
    1. Re:Toxic brand by stephanruby · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yes, but now Bayer will be the name that attracts all the hate for Monsanto's portfolio of products.

      Not that I disagree with that move, it's actually more honest, but still...

    2. Re:Toxic brand by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 5, Funny

      I mean, Bayer isn't called "IG Farben" for good reason. Bayer associates with "aspirin", which is good, right!?!

      "Give a man aspirin . . . and he'll be free of headaches for a day."

      "Give a man Zyklon B, and he'll be free of headaches for the rest of his life."

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    3. Re:Toxic brand by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Name changes used to work, but these days they tend to backfire. Journalists will still call them Monsanto (now rebranded Bayer due to bad publicity).

      All changing your name like that does is publicly admit that your reputation is impossible to salvage and you are trying to be sneaky. It's not like in the old days where such things could get by unnoticed.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    4. Re:Toxic brand by Sique · · Score: 5, Informative

      The reason being that the IG Farben was a trust, of which Bayer only was a part of. In fact, IG Farben consisted of eight different companies, Bayer, BASF, AGFA, Casella, Brüning, Griesheim-Elektron, Kalle, and ter Meer. After World War II, the IG Farben was disolved back into the eight former companies (Griesheim-Elektron becoming a part of Hoechst). So while Bayer was an important part of IG Farben, it wasn't IG Farben itself, and the former IG Farben is not Bayer.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    5. Re:Toxic brand by xonen · · Score: 2

      It's a toxic brand

      People aren't stupid, and will realize Roundup is now produced by Bayer. Bayer will just be the new 'synonym' for Monsanto.

      Having said that all, i don't believe genetic modification or roundup is bad per-se. It's how it's been used that's possibly bad - with corn producing its own poisons, and roundup being available at consumer level and it's commercial use poorly regulated. People forget that Monsanto's products are also essential for feeding 8 billion people. However, it's also good that environmental-aware organizations keep a critical look at technological progress.

      So, if any, Bayer has to be aware of some possible backlash that comes with assimilating Monsanto and destroying it's name in a bad attempt to cover up. If you'd ask me, it've been way wiser to keep the Monsanto name.

      --
      A glitch a day keeps the bugs away.
    6. Re:Toxic brand by damien_kane · · Score: 2

      Give a a man Plutonium 210 and you will be free of one more headache.

        -- Vladimir Putin

      Give a man Plutonium 210 and scientists around the world will wonder how you got around the current laws of physics to make it
      Perhaps you're thinking of Polonium?

    7. Re: Toxic brand by c6gunner · · Score: 4, Insightful

      People aren't stupid

      If that were true they wouldn't have demonized Monsanto in the first place ...

  2. Oy Vey by Cornwallis · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "These days Monsanto is shorthand for, as NPR's Dan Charles has put it, 'lots of things that some people love to hate':"

    MUCH better they are now called by the name of the company known for gassing Jews.

    1. Re: Oy Vey by dcw3 · · Score: 2

      Look into the lies of the Holocost for your self.

      Don't know why I'm responding to an AC, but anyway...

      As the decedent of a German (non-Jewish) immigrant, who had family on both sides of the war, and who met veterans of that war, and who's been to Dachau, and lived in German for many years, let me just say... BULLSHIT. Look into it yourself you lying piece of dung.

      --
      Just another day in Paradise
    2. Re: Oy Vey by houghi · · Score: 2

      Looking at all the Nazi-gold, I would say it paid for itself.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    3. Re: Oy Vey by ilsaloving · · Score: 2

      For the life of me, I can't figure out the root motivation for holocaust denialism.

      They can't handle the idea that human beings are capable of being barbaric?

      Is it a hatred of Jews so seething that they can't accept that genocide is anything other than a good thing?

  3. Sooooo by MrKaos · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Monsanto name is gone, however their genetically modified crops that only grow with their products remains.

    i.e. nothing has changed.

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    1. Re:Sooooo by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Informative

      Monsanto name is gone, however their genetically modified crops that only grow with their products remains.

      Their patents on both glyphosate (Roundup) and RR crops expired long ago.

    2. Re:Sooooo by F.Ultra · · Score: 5, Informative

      Every major chemical company produces glyhosate products, here is one from Bayer: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bayer...

      And no, Monsanto never sued farmers whose fields where infected. All lawsuits have been with people who "intentionally replanted patented seeds": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    3. Re: Sooooo by F.Ultra · · Score: 2

      Yes that is right, every one that does not agree with you is a shill.

  4. Re:What's Bayer's ethics like? by Chatterton · · Score: 4, Funny

    No, no ethic problem here. If you get sick with 'monsanto' products, they will provide you with some aspirin :)

  5. A new motto by Required+Snark · · Score: 2
    Bayer: "Greed From Genetics".

    Bayer is now the biotechnology migraine headache of the 21st century.

    --
    Why is Snark Required?
    1. Re:A new motto by SharpFang · · Score: 2

      Now that's a good business sense! They are CREATING a market for their flagship product!

      --
      45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
  6. Re:A rose^H^H^H^H turd by any other name by halivar · · Score: 4, Funny

    These products are why rampant starvation is a thing of the past. Your statement is a REAL example of white privilege.

  7. Re:A rose^H^H^H^H turd by any other name by Entrope · · Score: 3, Funny

    Forget it, Jake, it's Chi--er, an AC troll.

  8. Cambridge Analytica is now Emerdata by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    That's right: now do us a service by reminding everyone everywhere: Emerdata is the new Cambridge Analytica.

    It's easy to memorize Emerdata, like the French merde. Shitty data or something.

  9. Re:... but the Asshattery remains. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What is hilarious is that the same people that constantly shout, "Science!" with respect to their causes that they find are supported by science, completely ignore the conspicuous lack of science to support their claims about GMO, Round Up, etc.

  10. Re:What's Bayer's ethics like? by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Is there a company, or organization or even a person that you can really point to and say this is truly a force for good?

    We live in a world with trade-offs. We can't get what we want exactly how we want it. And what we need is different for every person, and changes all the time.

    Having worked with many of these Evil corporations, and working with some of the organizations that people seem to call good. There isn't a super villain attitude of some guy trying to make lives difficult for people. But people who are trying to improve their own lives and their family as a priority as millions of years of evolution have conditioned us to do.

    So the demand was for food, that is free of pests, and will not be less toxic. Monsanto did that.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  11. Re:Monsanto gave bio-engineering a bad name by bahwi · · Score: 2

    But farmers always had the option to not buy their products the next year.... they chose to because of the increase in profits / revenue and reduction of labor. It's lock-in for a growing season. If you didn't buy their products next year they had the right to come in and see if you were still using it (without purchasing it) but 99.99% of the people didn't and no issues occurred.

  12. Wtf are you talking about? They are not changing by raymorris · · Score: 3, Insightful

    > All changing your name like that does is publicly admit that your reputation is impossible to salvage and you are trying to be sneaky.

    What the heck are you talking about? Why in the world would the larger company, Bayer, change ITS name to the name of the smaller company it is acquiring? Of course Bayer is keeping their name.

    What could be sneaky be if $bigcompany bought $smallcompany and then changed its name to $smallcompany. Keeping their name is what companies normally do when they make acquisitions.

  13. Re:Smart business moves, require Stupidity. by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 2

    For all the (justifiable) hate on the company, I still feel a little sad for Edgar M Queeny’s legacy to disappear.

  14. Re:What The Fuuuuuu??? by Registered+Coward+v2 · · Score: 4, Funny

    How can you patent a seed????

    Submit a patent application with the necessary paperwork.

    --
    I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
  15. Re: ... but the Asshattery remains. by c6gunner · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes I agree! How peoole can make any claims that non-GMOs are safe with respect to the wider ecosystem, with virtually no test data is ridiculous and anti-science BS

  16. Re:Wtf are you talking about? They are not changin by omnichad · · Score: 2

    Why in the world would the larger company, Bayer, change ITS name to the name of the smaller company it is acquiring?

    See: AT&T

    But seriously, huge companies do not usually use the parent company's name. How many products in the grocery aisle have you seen marked as Mondelez International? You see plenty of Kraft, Nabisco, Cadbury, etc.

  17. Re:Monsanto gave bio-engineering a bad name by F.Ultra · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Exactly, and people seam to miss that Monsanto is just one of many companies producing GMO seeds. Here is an interesting podcast from the League of Nerds where they (together with Monsanto) visited a BT cotton farmer and found out that he grew cotton from multiple vendors in order to see which one grew best on his land: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  18. Mistakes by Tenebrousedge · · Score: 2

    CO2, Tetraethyl lead and lead in general, CFCs, Thalidomide, and perhaps cigarettes. It's a short list, and doesn't actually refute overall point, but yes, there have been a few fairly serious scientific errors in the past.

    --
    Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
  19. Re: ... but the Asshattery remains. by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 2

    Sure. A poison is just harmless. This is the kind of nonsense that makes you "science groupies" look no better than members of the American Family

    Actually yes, poison is harmless in most cases. No matter how much you may think that the food that you eat is "natural", "organic", "pure", "homeopathic", "in tune with Gaia", or whatever your fetish may or may not be, you're still going to end up with poison somewhere in the mix. I'm not setting it, it's just a fact.

    The key thing that you're overlooking is that it's the dose that makes the poison, not the substance itself. Take meadow saffron for example; extremely deadly plant, eating a leaf will most likely cause an excruciatingly painful death, but eating a tiny fraction of the leaf relieves gout. And then there's always water; dinking too much of it at once will lead to an unpleasant death by hyponatremia.

    Glyphosate is similar. Trace amounts on food won't do anything to you, neither long term nor short term. The main issue with glyphosate is that it is a skin irritant, but in concentrations a few hundred orders of magnitude above what your thinking. EPA bribe conspiracy theories notwithstanding, given there is so much hate towards it, I think some well funded hippie group would have found something in the 28 years that roundup has been a thing. That is, of course, if they can manage to pull it off without scientific fraud, because they're having a hard time doing it any other way for their other pet cause.

    http://www.slate.com/articles/...

    Unfortunately, the fraudulent "truth" is the only one they're willing to accept, it seems.