Leading up to their monstrous union on June 7, 2018, analysts predicted huge profits from the further monopolization of the pesticide industry on the backs of rising prices for farmers and consumers.
Instead, the stock went up briefly to $31.67 per share on June 16, and ever since has been trading at a steady decline and currently rests just shy of halfit’s price 6 months ago at $17.81.
Now Bayer is rapidly cutting jobs and selling off smaller brands in an effort to stay viable amidst the stunning losses.
So what happened to cause such a drastic decline, and why is this such amazing news for those who oppose the egregious practices of big biotech?
Karma Roundup
Just after selling out, the verdict for a landmark case against Monsanto was set to be delivered. The plaintiff, Dewayne Johnson, alleged Monsanto suppressed evidence it’s weedkiller RoundUp caused his terminal non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma he used regularly when he worked as a school grounds keeper.
Johnson’s case was heard ahead of other similar cases because of his rapidly declining health. After a long and uncertain battle the final judgement finally came: the jury found Monsanto acted with:
“malice… because they knew what they were doing was wrong and doing it with reckless disregard for human life.”
In the coming weeks, Bayer managed to get the damages reduced from $289 million to $78 million, but their battle for survival is just beginning. Today they face at least 9,000 lawsuits related to the same herbicide. Bayer continues to insist Roundup is safe, but it seems likely the Biotech industry is heading in the same direction as big tobacco in the 1990s. Especially considering the fact that government agencies are finally starting to take the side of the consumer in classifying chemicals like glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, as carcinogenic.
One can only imagine the long list of other chemical lawsuits the Bayer-Monsanto conglomerate will face in coming years. After all, Monsanto is the same company that brought us Agent Orange, heroine, and the GMO crops which have hurt small farmers and have lead to various ecological problems. Bayer, on the other hand, is the inventor of countless drugs, and the neonicotinoid insecticides which many scientists have linked to the mass bee die offs currently threatening the entire food system.
https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/69833/bayermonsanto-bleeding-out-44-drop-mainstream-media.html
[Posted at the SpookyWeather blog, December 22nd, 2018.]
Cutting Through the Hell of the Medical-Industrial Complex
