German chemicals and pharmaceuticals giant Bayer on Monday said it will discard the name Monsanto when it takes over the controversial US seeds and pesticides producer this week, as environmental groups kept up their criticism of the mega-merger. The move comes after years of protests against Monsanto's activities by environmental groups that have badly damaged the company's brand.
But Bayer executives insisted that Monsanto practices rejected by environmentalists, including genetic modification of seeds and deployment of "crop protection" technologies like pesticides, were vital to help feed a growing world population. "The company name is and will remain Bayer. Monsanto will no longer be a company name," chief executive Werner Baumann said.
Bayer's $63-billion (54-billion-euro) buyout of Monsanto - one of the largest in German corporate history - is set to close Thursday, birthing a global giant with 115,000 employees and revenues of some 45 billion euros.
The Monsanto brand "was an issue for some time for Monsanto management," noted Liam Condon, president of Bayer's crop science division, adding that the US firm's employees were "not fixated on the Monsanto brand" but "proud of what they've achieved".
Producing high-tech genetically modified seeds, many designed to grow crops resistant to its proprietary pesticides, Monsanto has been a target for environmentalist protests and lawsuits over harm to health and the environment for decades.
"It's understandable that Bayer wants to avoid having bought Monsanto's negative image with the billions it has spent on the firm," said Greenpeace campaigner Dirk Zimmermann, urging "a fundamental transformation in the new mega-company's policies."
He accused Bayer of having "no interest in developing future-proof, sustainable solutions for agriculture".
Activists fear Monsanto's addition to Bayer will further reduce competition in the hotly-contested agrichemical sector, limiting farmers' and consumers' choices beyond GM and chemically treated crops.
What's more, in recent years weeds have begun to emerge that are resistant to products like Monsanto staple glyphosate, marketed as Roundup alongside "Roundup-ready" seeds beginning in the 1990s.
As agrichemical firms respond with new pesticides and resistant seeds, there are fears of an arms race with ever-more-potent weedkillers. Some scientists already suspect glyphosate causes cancer, with a 2015 World Health Organization study determining it was "probably carcinogenic" - although Bayer has contested the research.