China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) has granted a safety certificate approval for the import and food/feed use of Bayer’s TruFlex canola with Roundup Ready technology. According to a news release, MARA has notified Bayer that a safety certificate for TruFlex canola has been granted, and they’re now awaiting final documentation which should be… Read More
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has granted a temporary extension to the registration of dicamba, including product sold under the trade name XtendiMax, through 2020. The EPA has fielded numerous complaints about spray drift from the product, the majority of which stem from dicamba sprayed on herbicide-tolerant crops, initially released in 2017. The EPA… Read More
Glyphosate — commonly known as Roundup — suffered a blow in the court of public opinion following a California jury decision last week, but the actual legal implications of the verdict are still to be determined in court. The jury found Monsanto liable in a case where former school groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson alleges exposure to… Read More
What if you could just point your phone at a weed and the phone would tell you what you were looking at? At one time it was a huge breakthrough to be able to take a picture of a weed and send a text message to an agronomist. It still is in fact, but sometimes… Read More
BASF employees can officially get to work on the company’s newly-acquired business from Bayer. The company announced Wednesday that it has closed its acquisition of assets from Bayer, which competition regulators required Bayer sell to gain approval of its purchase of Monsanto that closed in early July. The 7.6 billion euro (C$11.5 billion at today’s… Read More
The ripple effect from Bayer’s acquisition of Monsanto continues in the canola seed business. Canada’s Competition Bureau says it has approved BASF’s purchase of Bayer’s LibertyLink canola system on the condition that BASF sell its own Clearfield production system for canola. “The Commissioner of Competition concluded that BASF’s acquisition of the Bayer assets would likely… Read More
It’s a done deal. Monsanto shares are no longer trading on the New York Stock Exchange, as Bayer completed its US$63 billion acquisition of Monsanto on Thursday. The actual integration of Monsanto into Bayer — and the coinciding retirement of the Monsanto name — won’t happen immediately, as approval from the U.S. Department of Justice… Read More
The name Monsanto is headed for retirement. Bayer has confirmed it will no longer use the name after it closes its US$63 billion acquisition of Monsanto. Monsanto has been the target of anti-GMO activists for years, serving as a corporate lightning rod for critics of genetic modification and crop protection technology in general. Whether referenced… Read More
One of the most well-known and controversial brands in the world will soon become part of history. Bayer has confirmed it plans to complete its acquisition of Monsanto on June 7, after receiving all the required regulatory approvals. Monsanto products will retain their brand names under Bayer’s portfolio, but the name “Monsanto” will be retired…. Read More
Canada’s competition regulator says it has reached an agreement with Bayer that lays out the conditions for its proposed acquisition of Monsanto. The announcement comes a day after the U.S. Department of Justice gave its conditional approval to the US$66 billion deal. The Competition Bureau concluded that the deal “would likely substantially lessen and prevent… Read More
Bayer has announced a $20,000 contribution to The Do More Agriculture Foundation — a not-for-profit organization launched this past winter to raise awareness and promote mental well-being among farmers in Canada. “We believe that through this partnership we can help increase awareness of mental health issues and break the stigma that currently exists in the… Read More
With the European Union granting its conditional approval in late March, and U.S. antitrust authorities reportedly set to give their thumbs-up signal, Canada’s competition regulator has yet to issue its decision on Bayer’s proposed acquisition of Monsanto. The US$66 billion deal, which was originally announced in September 2016, has significant implications in the Canadian market,… Read More
Bayer has confirmed it will be selling its digital farming business to gain approval of its acquisition of Monsanto instead of licensing the digital assets out to a competing company. In gaining regulatory approval of the deal in Europe, Bayer had agreed to license its digital farming package to BASF. However, in a statement shared… Read More
Bayer has checked off one of the final boxes on the list of approvals needed for its acquisition of Monsanto, as the European Commission granted conditional approval of the $66 billion deal on Wednesday. “We have approved Bayer’s plans to take over Monsanto because the parties’ remedies, worth well over €6 billion, meet our competition… Read More
Bayer and Bosch are working together on a three-year research collaboration to develop a precise spraying technology that will minimize herbicide use, while also mitigating against resistance development. The technology, called Smart Spraying, will see camera sensors identifying weeds, and precise herbicide application targeting them on a single pass, within a fraction of a second. According… Read More