Bayer and Monsanto: A Marriage Made in Hell | New Eastern Outlook
Bayer and Monsanto: A Marriage Made in Hell
In
a world infected with a plethora of immoral multinational corporations,
it is hard to think of two corporations who have more nefarious
histories than Bayer AG and Monsanto. Considering this, it is a
harrowing prospect that the two corporations could potentially strike a
deal in the near future.
As Bloomberg
reported earlier this month, Bayer AG – the German pharmaceutical and
chemical corporation – is reportedly considering a bid for the
agrochemical and biotechnology corporation, Monsanto. This comes two
months after Monsanto showed some interest in acquiring Bayer Crop Sciences, a branch of Bayer AG.
Founded
in 1863, Bayer may be familiar to many readers as the first company to
widely sell and trademark Aspirin in the late nineteenth century. But
there is a far more sinister history to this company that is often
omitted.
The Inception of Chemical Warfare
April 22nd,
1915 is widely considered to be the first successful large-scale use of
poison gas in warfare, when the Germany army deployed chlorine gas
against the French lines at the start of the Second Battle of Ypres. In
January of that year, German forces had released gas against Russian
forces, yet the cold conditions inhibited the main agents in the weapon
from having the desired impact.
Even
as far back as the First World War, Bayer was playing a major role in
the development of Germany’s chemical weapons apparatus. Along with
other German chemical giants at the time, Bayer
was a key player in producing and supplying the German army with
chemical weapons during WWI (it should be noted that other powers were
developing and deploying chemical weapons during the Great War, not just
Germany).
Bayer and the Nazi War Machine
Fast-forward
a decade or so, and Bayer was playing an integral part in amalgamating
numerous chemical companies into one. The merger resulted in the
creation of the most infamous chemical company in modern history – I.G.
Farben. As the late Anthony C. Sutton – a former Economics Professor at
California State University and Research Fellow at Stanford University’s
Hoover Institution – wrote in his book, Wall Street and the Rise of
Hitler:
“The
Farben cartel dated from 1925, when organizing genius Hermann Schmitz
(with Wall Street financial assistance) created the super-giant chemical
enterprise out of six already giant German chemical companies –
Badische Anilin, Bayer, Agfa, Hoechst, Weiler-ter-Meer and
Griesheim-Elektron. There companies were merged to become I.G. Farben.
Twenty years later the same Hermann Schmitz was put on trial at
Nuremburg for war crimes committed by the I.G. cartel. Other I.G. Farben
directors were placed on trial but the American affiliates of I.G.
Farben and the American directors of I.G. itself were quietly forgotten;
the truth was buried in the archives… Without the capital supplied by
Wall Street, there would have been no I.G. Farben in the first place and
almost certainly no Adolf Hitler and World War II.”
In more modern times, a division of Bayer was accused of ‘knowingly’ selling HIV-contaminated blood products to haemophiliacs, and has paid millions in damages in legal settlements.
Brothers in Death
During
the Vietnam War, Monsanto was contracted to produce and supply the US
government with a malevolent chemical for military application. Along
with other chemical corporations at the time such as Dow Chemical,
Monsanto produced the military herbicide Agent Orange
which contained high quantities of the deadly chemical Dioxin. Between
1961 and 1971, the US Army sprayed between 50 and 80 million litres of
Agent Orange across Vietnamese jungles, forests and strategically
advantageous positions.
http://journal-neo.org/2016/05/21/bayer-and-monsanto-a-marriage-made-in-hell/
