Press Release

High-level panel discussion with international guests, 27 April, University of Cologne

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High-level panel discussion with international guests, 27 April, 7:30 pm,  University of Cologne

On the evening before BAYER’s Annual Shareholders’ Meeting to be held on 28 April in Bonn, a panel discussion on the planned takeover of Monsanto by the BAYER Group will take place in the tradition of an American Townhall Meeting. The event, in English, will take place on 27 April at 7.30 pm in the Aula 1 of the University of Albertus-Magnus-Platz, Cologne, Germany.

Navdanya International, IFOAM – Organics International, Coordination against BAYER Dangers, and ASTA of the University of Cologne, the event organizers, have brought together prominent experts from around the world to highlight the critical implications the planned takeover would have on the world’s future of food.  The panelists are:

Miguel Lovera, will share his views of how the merger would affect Latin America. He is an agricultural scientist and specialist in biodiversity and plant propagation and was head of the Office of Plant Protection and Seed in the government of the former President of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo.    He was one of the most important witnesses at last year’s Monsanto Tribunal in The Hague.

Nnimmo Bassey will join us from Nigeria, is founder and Director of HOMEF (Health of Mother Earth Foundation) and is a member of the Board of Navdanya International. He was awarded the Right to Livelihood Award, the alternative Nobel Peace Prize, and was President of Friends of the Earth for many years. He has long been fighting for a GMO free world and was an ambassador of the Monsanto Tribunal. He has a degree in Architecture and is also a well-known poet.

Andre Leu, President of IFOAM – Organics International, is a pioneer and organic farmer from Australia, and has been fighting against monopolistic chemical and agro-companies for many years to undo the structures in the agricultural industry which put huge pressure on all those dependent on seed, fertilizer and plant protection products as well as consumers, food processors and, above all, farmers in both the North and South. Such structures exacerbate poverty, hunger, climate change, and the loss of biodiversity.

Johannes Remmel (The Greens), the Agriculture and Environment Minister from North Rhine-Westphalia, is a renowned politician committed to promoting a paradigm shift in agricultural policy and will politically evaluate the planned acquisition of Monsanto by a global corporation in “his” state.

Axel Köhler-Schnura, spokesperson for Coordination against BAYER Dangers will outline why and how, for decades, the organization has been tirelessly shedding light on the many corporate crimes BAYER has committed and their attempts to take legal action  against the corporation for the ecological and social problems they have caused. He will also outline the numerous actions taking place at the time of the shareholders’ meeting.

Marie Bauer, is with the Environmental Trade Union in Cologne and will speak as a representative of the youth.  She is an active voice against Bayer and Monsanto as being one of the main sources of today’s global environmental disaster. She advocates that both workers’ and environmental movements must stand shoulder to shoulder in a united front to bring to light the damage these huge corporations are causing around the world.

Bernward Geier, Board member of Navdanya International  and Ambassador of IFOAM – Organics International, will moderate the event.  He says, “It is an honor and will be a great pleasure to moderate such an exciting podium event. Especially at a time, when this topic is of such great relevance and importance around the world. It is rare that a moderator has the opportunity to be part an event with such competent, international and well-known guests.” He promises, “The participants can expect interesting information and most definitely look forward to a very exciting evening.”

The event is supported by the Heinrich Böll Foundation, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and sponsored by Rapunzel.

The press text for the event announcement is also an invitation to the press. We would be very pleased for your feedback.   We can offer those who are interested a timeslot for an interview with panel participants or to record O-tones.  We would ask that you indicate your interest by Wednesday, April 25th.

Pre-protest panel discussion 25 April at the University Bonn

A panel discussion at the University of Bonn (lecture theater 17) will take place on Tuesday, April 25, at 7:30 pm, as a prelude to the protests. In addition to the sponsors: Arbeitsgemeinschaft bäuerliche Landwirtschaft, Bonner Jugendbewegung, Mexican group of  Allerweltshauses Cologne, a Bonn Council man and a year-long BAYER shop steward will also attend. Everyone is moved by the question: What connects our resistance to BAYER and Monsanto?

Media contact:
Bernward Geier, b.geier@colabora-together.de,
Tel: 02245-618652, Mobile: 0160-97988850

Pre-protest panel discussion 25 April at the University Bonn

A panel discussion at the University of Bonn (lecture theater 17) will take place on Tuesday, April 25, at 7:30 pm, as a prelude to the protests. In addition to the sponsors: Arbeitsgemeinschaft bäuerliche Landwirtschaft, Bonner Jugendbewegung, Mexican group of  Allerweltshauses Cologne, a Bonn Council man and a year-long BAYER shop steward will also attend. Everyone is moved by the question: What connects our resistance to BAYER and Monsanto?

“Stop Bayer / Monsanto!” actions in Bonn – 28 April 2017

In addition it is planned to hold a demonstration outside the shareholder meeting on 28 April. Meeting time is 7am at Platz der Vereinten Nationen, Bonn. Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/761709597343498/ — Learn more: http://seedfreedom.info/stop-bayer-monsanto-days-of-action-in-germany/

This series of actions in Germany is, in turn, part of the global mobilization which was initiated last October during the People’s Assembly and the Monsanto Tribunal in the Hague, co-organised by Navdanya,  along with multiple civil society organisations..

Movements across the world are already joining this renewed “Call to Action against the Corporate Takeover of our Food and Health” and events and actions are being organised along the month of April and beyond.