BAYER presents disastrous business results
The penalty for reckless chasing after profits
BAYER today presented catastrophic figures for the 2020 business year. Due to the ruthlessness with which the multinational corporation from Leverkusen markets even dangerous products, it is now faced with massive claims for damages. The ‟special expenses” that are included in the balance sheet come to more than 23 billion euros, spoiling the group’s earnings. The legal concerns involve not only glyphosate, but also the pesticide Dicamba, the PCB family of industrial chemicals, and Essure, the birth-control coil that caused numerous injuries. The suit for damages because of the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam which came to trial in Paris at the beginning of February of this year has not even been considered here, and presents a new, additional risk to the corporation.
For a long time, the side effects of Bayer products had no influence on its balance sheet. This has changed. Despite this, the corporation shows no signs of being willing to learn from this. For example, it is still doing all it can to keep glyphosate on the market,” Marius Stelzmann of the Coordination gegen BAYER-Gefahren (CBG) remarks critically. Furthermore, despite more than a year and a half of negotiations for a settlement in the glyphosate affair, the global player still cannot present a solution. It still has not reached agreements for compensation with all of the 125,000 US plaintiffs who accuse the herbicide of being responsible for their cancers. As a response to these actions, the CBG has launched the campaign ‟Carcinogen. Climate killer. Environmental toxin. Ban glyphosate now!”.
Glyphosate also affects the environmental footprint negatively. For in addition to everything else, this herbicide is also a true climate killer, because its production at the Soda Springs site in the USA consumes enormous amounts of energy. The furnace must reach an operating temperature of 1500° Celsius in order to obtain the precursor phosphorus from phosphorite. Thus the herbicide is responsible for a substantial share of Bayer’s carbon-dioxide emissions of 3.58 million metric tons last year. But the agribusiness giant does not say so that clearly. In its new sustainability report, it states vaguely: ‟Especially energy-intensive is our winning of raw materials, including processing and further processing for the production of precursors for herbicides and pesticides from Crop Science – therefore the majority of our greenhouse-gas emissions come from this Division.”
For years, the Coordination has been demanding measures for more climate protection in Soda Springs, but the company has not responded yet. The CBG has also addressed the corporation’s practice of depriving the community of billions by ‟completely legal tax tricks” for a long time. But nothing happens in this respect, either. According to the listing of holdings published today, Bayer continues to maintain numerous branches in tax havens such as Cyprus, the Netherlands, the US state of Delaware, and the German town of Monheim.
‟Bayer’s business practices do massive harm to society. This was shown once again clearly today. The Coordination gegen BAYER-Gefahren will confront the corporation with the criticism of these practices at its annual general meeting on April 27th”, Stelzmann concluded.
For this year’s Bayer press conference on its financial statement, the CBG, together with its ally, Jeffrey Smith of the Institute for Responsible Technology, has prepared more extensive analyses of the harmful effects of glyphosate, and their effects on Bayer’s business model.
These can be found as video statements and interviews after 4 p.m. at:
cbgnetwork.org/7761.html
facebook.com/CBGnetwork/
twitter.com/cbgnetwork
youtube.com/user/BayerGefahren
Institute for Responsible Technology:
responsibletechnology.org/
‟Ban glyphosate now!” campaign:
glyphosat.cbgnetwork.org/
Press contact person:
Marius Stelzmann +49-211-333911