Monsanto and Bayer CropScience in deals to share technology

Monsanto and Bayer CropScience in deals to share technology

Tue Apr 16, 2013 10:43am EDT

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/16/monsanto-bayer-idUSL2N0D30TR20130416

April 16 (Reuters) - Global biotech seed giant Monsanto Co

and rival Bayer CropScience said Tuesday they have signed a

series of cross-licensing deals to share certain crop

biotechnology for weed and pest control.

Monsanto said it will provide Bayer CropScience, a subsidiary of Bayer AG of Germany, with a royalty-bearing license to herbicide-tolerant soybean technology known as Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield and Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Xtend technology in the United States and Canada.

Bayer CropScience also will receive a royalty-bearing

license to use Monsanto's Intacta RR2 PRO, an insect-protected

soybean, in Brazil with an option to a royalty-bearing license

in other Latin-American countries in the future. Bayer

CropScience will be able to stack the genetic traits with other

traits in the crops it develops under certain conditions.

In return, Bayer CropScience will grant Monsanto licenses to

evaluate some of its own technologies for controlling corn

rootworm pests and for making crops that are herbicide tolerant.

Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed.

On April 11, Monsanto announced a similar cross-licensing

arrangement with Dow AgroSciences, a subsidiary of Dow

Chemical. In that deal, Monsanto is licensing Dow

AgroSciences' new Enlist Weed Control System herbicide-tolerant

trait for use in field corn. And Dow AgroSciences is licensing

Monsanto corn rootworm technology that is under development.

Monsanto's  Roundup Ready crop technology has been a popular

platform for soybeans, corn, cotton and other crops, giving

farmers the ability to kill weeds without harming the

herbicide-tolerant crops when they spray their fields with

Roundup herbicide.

But heavy use of Roundup has spurred expansion of Roundup

resistant weeds, and Monsanto and other agricultural biotech

companies have been working to come up with new combinations of

chemicals to try to fight back weed resistance. Insect

resistance is also a growing concern in some areas.

Bayer AG

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayer_AG

The Bayer company then became part of IG Farben, a German chemical company conglomerate. During World War II, the IG Farben used slave labor in factories attached to large slave labor camps, notably the sub-camps of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp.[2] IG Farben owned 42.5% of the company that manufactured Zyklon B,[3] a chemical used in the gas chambers of Auschwitz and other extermination camps. After World War II, the Allies broke up IG Farben and Bayer reappeared as an individual business. The Bayer executive Fritz ter Meer, sentenced to seven years in prison by the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, was made head of the supervisory board of Bayer in 1956, after his release.

Bayer has discovered, among others:

Parathion, insecticide

Parathion, also called parathion-ethyl or diethyl parathion, is an organophosphate compound. It is a potent insecticide and acaricide. It was originally developed by IG Farben in the 1940s. It is highly toxic to non-target organisms, including humans. Its use is banned or restricted in many countries, and there are proposals to ban it from all use. Closely related is "methyl parathion"

Propoxur, insecticide

Propoxur (Baygon) is a carbamate insecticide and was introduced in 1959. Propoxur is a non-systemic insecticide with a fast knockdown and long residual effect used against turf, forestry, and household pests and fleas. It is also used in pest control for other domestic animals, Anopheles mosquitoes, ants, gypsy moths, and other agricultural pests.[1][2] It can also be used as a molluscicide.[2][3][4]

Several US states have petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to use propoxur against bedbug infestations, but the EPA has been reluctant to approve indoor use because of its potential toxicity to children after chronic exposure.

Bayer AG

Bayer CropScience is a subsidiary of Bayer AG.

Note: Crowell & Moring was the lobby firm for Bayer CropScience.

Stephanie Daigle is a senior policy adviser at Crowell & Moring, and was an associate administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Carol M. Browner was an administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the energy czar for the Barack Obama administration, and is a senior fellow, director at the Center for American Progress.

Melody C. Barnes was the EVP for the Center for American Progress, the domestic policy council, director for the Barack Obama administration, and is Barack Obama’s golf partner.

Open Society Foundations was a funder at the Center for American Progress.

George Soros was a supporter for the Center for American Progress, is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank).

Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Center for American Progress, and the Brookings Institution (think tank).

George H. Poste is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), and a director at the Monsanto Company.

Robert J. Stevens is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), and a director at the Monsanto Company.

Jose H. Villarreal is a director at the Center for American Progress, and a senior adviser at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP.

Joshua Tzuker was a lobbyist for Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, and is counsel at Crowell & Moring.

Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP is the lobby firm for Monsanto Company, and the Dow Chemical Company.

Richard T. Crowder was the president & CEO, Dow AgroSciences for the Dow Chemical Company, the under secretary for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the chief agriculture negotiator for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is a senior counsel for Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), Valerie B. Jarrett’s great uncle, a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Klaus Kleinfeld is a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a director at Bayer AG, a director at the American Council on Germany, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Gregory S. Babe is a director at the American Council on Germany, and the president & CEO for the Bayer Corporation.

Mayer Brown was the lobby firm for the Bayer Corporation.

Scott Parven was the chairman, public policy for Mayer Brown, and is a partner at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP.

Bayer Corporation is the North American subsidiary of Bayer AG.

Robert A. Helman was an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), is a partner at Mayer Brown, and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

William M. Daley is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, was a partner at Mayer Brown, and the chief of staff for the Barack Obama administration.

William M. Daley

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_M._Daley

Professional career

Daley returned to the practice of law, as a partner with the firm Mayer Brown (then Mayer, Brown & Platt) from 1993 to 1997.

R. Eden Martin is the president of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and counsel at Sidley Austin LLP.

Michelle Obama was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.

Barack Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin LLP.

Sidley Austin LLP is the lobby firm for the Bayer HealthCare, and was the lobby firm for the Monsanto Company.

Bayer HealthCare is a subsidiary of Bayer AG.

Bayer Corporation is the North American subsidiary of Bayer AG.

Gregory S. Babe is the president & CEO for the Bayer Corporation, and a director at the American Council on Germany.

Joseph McLaughlin is a director at the American Council on Germany, and a partner at Sidley Austin LLP.

Klaus Kleinfeld is a director at the American Council on Germany, a director at Bayer AG, a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a director at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

John W. Bachmann is a director at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and was a director at the Monsanto Company.

Sidley Austin LLP was the lobby firm for the Monsanto Company.