Erasing the name of Monsanto while keeping only that of Bayer does not mean being able to forget the wrongdoings of a multinational which, according to the verdict of the international civil society tribunal, the International Monsanto Tribunal in The Hague, has been found guilty of crimes of ecocide.

Attempting to shift the confrontation onto ideological ground, as Bayer's executive director Werner Baumann is trying to do, will not prevent Navdanya and international civil society organisations from bringing the debate back to the everyday reality of our life on Earth, which has nothing to do with ideology. Nor will it stop them from continuing to denounce the environmental pollution, soil and water contamination, and health emergencies that industrial agriculture, led by a small group of multinationals, is causing around the world.

Bayer inherits Monsanto's responsibilities

By officially acquiring Monsanto, Bayer inherits its responsibilities. Navdanya, together with civil society organisations from around the world, will continue to monitor, denounce and protest so that the agroecological transition, recently called for by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Fao) as well, becomes a reality. Equally, small-scale local production, circular and inclusive economies, and nutritious, healthy food must once again become the norm after fifty years of intensive and unhealthy production that has devastated the sector, polluted the environment and produced toxic food without solving the problem of world hunger, while further undermining the food sovereignty of peoples. Industrial agriculture can in fact claim a relatively small share of global food production. The majority of the food we eat is still produced by small and medium-sized farmers, while the vast majority of crops from the industrial sector, such as maize and soya, are used primarily as animal feed or to produce biofuels.

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Navdanya International has invited leading experts from around the world to draft the manifesto "Food for health. Cultivating biodiversity, cultivating health". The Manifesto will be distributed to farmers and citizens around the world, governments and stakeholders; its aim is to highlight the inseparable link between food and health, to develop global strategies to move beyond the industrial agriculture model, and to foster convergence and action among movements for agroecology and public health in order to reach a shared vision of sustainable, fair and inclusive development, based on agricultural and food systems free from poisons and mindful of the safeguarding of biodiversity.

The work of Navdanya International, from the time the International Commission on the Future of Food and Agriculture — led by Navdanya president Vandana Shiva — began its work and the manifestos were published, has been focused on promoting a new agricultural and economic paradigm and on the conviction that possible solutions to the multiple crises we are experiencing must come from adopting a model that respects the land and the dignity of people. In organic and biodiverse agriculture, in the freedom of access to seeds for farmers and citizens, and in circular economies based on the dignity of people, we can find solutions to ecological, climate, social and economic problems. We will continue to assert the rights of citizens and small and medium-sized producers who, despite being crushed by the current mechanisms of the market, are the only ones capable of guaranteeing the production of genuine, quality food. Furthermore, we will not cease to oppose the attempt by a tiny number of very powerful multinationals to seize power — multinationals which, instead of being regulated by our elected representatives, are increasingly managing to assume the role of regulators themselves, conducting heavy lobbying operations and thereby posing a serious threat to our democratic system.