By Jan

Bayer‘s intention to buy the St. Louis-based producer of seeds Monsanto for $62 billion to create a global giant in agriculture technology is met with farmers’ fear and consumer’s worry that the deal would affect them negatively.

U.S. farmers are worried that seed prices could rise. Some of Monsanto’s seeds are genetically modified to work together with Monsanto pesticides and herbicides. Thus farmers who plant these seeds must also invest in Monsanto’s chemical products. If the Bayer acquisition is approved, these farmers may soon be financially dependent on the German chemical and pharmaceutical company.

Furthermore, consumers fear they could see more genetically engineered foods on supermarket shelves. Additional voices ask for antitrust regulators to check if this merger would lead to a power concentration in the the global agricultural system.

And voices in Monsanto’s headquarter in St. Louis, Missouri, are talking about how a takeover by Bayer might affect Monsanto’s 5,300 employees. Bayer said that if it succeeds in buying Monsanto, the global crop protection business would be run from Germany. Bayer further assured that it will guarantee no jobs are lost in Germany because of the merger.

So now everyone is waiting how the Monsanto management will react to the offer. Kelly Wiesbrock, whose firm Harvest manages $2.2 billion and owns Monsanto shares, said the managers of Monsanto could also seek leading roles in the combined company: “I don’t see them completely rolling over and handing [Bayer] the keys.”

If you want to harness the wisdom and insights from the crowd to monitor your portfolio free of charge, please sign up for myMarkets.