The governments required Bayer to shed significant chunks of seed and crop protection assets to gain approvals.
BASF bought most of those assets.
That leaves the world’s seeds and crop protection businesses firmly in German control because both Bayer and BASF have their head offices there.
Syngenta was bought by ChemChina last year.
Dow and DuPont-Pioneer also merged last year.
Will the opposition to genetically-modified (GMO) crops fade now that the Monsanto name is about to disappear?
The anti-GMO moniker, Frankenfood, came out of Germany at a time when the technology was new and the United States and Canada had a commanding lead.
Germans, and Europeans in general, wanted time to catch up and so led the campaign to stall government approvals for crop varieties developed using the new gene-transfer technology.
But the campaign turned public opinion against GMOs so even when the Germans caught up, they were faced with opposition.
In North America, much of the farmer opposition to GMOs, especially from the organic farming community, centred on anger about Monsanto's size and power. There wasn't much said about the technology, other than to raise questions about unintended consequences.
