Bayer-Monsanto and the Agrochemical Industrial Complex

The pharmaceutical giant faces renewed pressure over the health impact of its core products

Written with Alexander Chen

In the year since Bayer bought agrochemical company Monsanto for $63 billion, its stock has fallen by nearly 40%. The company faces thousands of lawsuits over its glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup, which has been accused of causing cancer to those exposed. Bayer lost three civil cases over the past year, most recently in May when a California jury awarded more than $2 billion to a couple who claims the weed killer led to them contracting non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. This follows announcements of mass layoffs at Bayer in the fall and successive impairments and write-downs of its consumer-health business.

The Monsanto brand has long been a rallying point for activists in the movement against genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Although Bayer inherited all of Monsanto’s liabilities in its acquisition of the agrochemical company, its core products like Roundup remain unchanged with the deal and have retained their brand names. In March, the Wall Street Journal reported that farmers remain loyal to the herbicide since the herbicide is comparatively preferable to harsher weed killers like paraquat (which are…