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Protests in more than 400 cities worldwide are taking place Saturday against the U.S. agricultural giant, Monsanto, which is faced with a takeover from the German pharmaceuticals company Bayer.
If the deal goes ahead, Bayer will become the world’s biggest agricultural supplier and likely monopolize both pesticide and seed markets.
Many of these demonstrators are also protesting the sale of the herbicide RoundUp, which many say has caused cancer in humans and led to the development of genetically-modified crops.
Just recently in Peru, RoundUp left 92 children poisoned after a plane allegedly sprayed glyphosate — the active ingredient of Monsanto's Roundup weed killer — during a fumigation of a nearby sugar cane field.
In Paris, many of the protesters were from the grassroots group Nuit Debout, which in recent months has helped mobilize thousands of people for labour reform in the country.
In New York, people held up signs that said things like “Monsanto is killing me & you!” and “I am not your experiment!” More than 90 percent corn, soybean and cotton grown in the U.S. is genetically-modified.
In response to the protests, RT report Monsanto saying the following in a statement: “The 22,000 people of Monsanto are committed to having an open dialogue about food and agriculture – we’re proud of the work we do, and we’re eager for people to know more about us. We know people have different points of view on these topics, and it’s important that they’re able to express and share them.”
Rallies are also taking place in Tokyo, across Germany and in Canada.
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