BAYER’s Crop Science president Liam Condon has denied the company underestimated negative public sentiment around Monsanto prior to the merger of the two agricultural giants last month.
Just three weeks after the mega merger was finalised, Bayer is hosting journalists and farmers from across the globe at their annual Future of Farming Dialogue at its German headquarters at Monheim this week.
While the agenda for the four day event has centred around innovation and research in Bayer’s crop science division, issues around glyphosate and technology such as gene editing, which has been ruled as genetic modification by the European Union, have attracted the attention of the visiting journalists.
Michael Heussen is a reporter with Das Erste, Germany’s largest public owned television station. He said Bayer generally had a very good reputation in Germany but Monsanto was seen as the ‘devil’.
“Now there is a discussion going on in the media about whether it was a good idea to take over this company and even though they erased the name Monsanto they still have this bad reputation,” he said.
“I have no clue how they will fight that. If you look at all the papers and media and the share price of Bayer I think you can say they underestimated what a bad reputation Monsanto has.”
Speaking on the first day of the event, Bayer’s Liam Condon said it would take time to shift public perception about Monsanto, particularly across Europe.
“Unfortunately Monsanto has a quite a negative reputation in Germany, also in France, and with that it was very clear to us from the beginning that this would be a topic,” he said.
“I don't think that part has been underestimated.
“The only way that we could really address it was to say very clearly what the new company would stand for and how we want to do business.”
Mr Condon said public debate needed to shift away from individual companies to the role of modern agriculture.
“Some people have certain beliefs that modern agriculture is bad and everything should be organic and the poster child for that story was Monsanto whereas Bayer, Dupont and Syngenta - they all have the same products but because Monsanto was the leader it usually took the image hit,” he said.
“But it is the same topic for all of us - what is the role of modern agriculture in today’s society?”
The Future of Farming Dialogue will run until Thursday and includes presentations on cutting edge science and innovation such as gene editing, artificial intelligence, blockchain and drones.
In additional to international journalists, Bayer is also hosting a number of small farm holders from developing nations such as Kenya, Indonesia and India.
Agricultural ‘influencers’ such as farmers with strong social media profiles are also attending.
Penelope Arthur traveled to Germany as a guest of Bayer.