46 I EUROPEAN SEED I EUROPEAN-SEED.COM INDUSTRY NEWS TAILORED TO SEED PROFESSIONALS, INDUSTRY NEWS DELIVERS THE PEOPLE, RESEARCH, BUSINESS AND PRODUCT NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW. SUBMISSIONS ARE WELCOME. EMAIL US AT NEWS@ISSUESINK.COM. INDUSTRY NEWS BASF has signed an agreement to acquire significant parts of Bayer’s seed and non-selective herbicide businesses. Bayer intends to divest these assets in the context of its planned acquisition of Monsanto. The all-cash purchase price is €5.9 billion, subject to certain adjustments at closing. The assets to be acquired include Bayer’s global glufosi- nate-ammonium non-selective herbicide business, commercialized under the Liberty, Basta and Finale brands, as well as its seed businesses for key row crops in select markets: canola hybrids in North America under the InVigor brand using the LibertyLink trait technology, oilseed rape mainly in European markets, cotton in the Americas and Europe as well as soybean in the Americas. The transaction also includes Bayer’s trait research and breeding capabilities for these crops and the LibertyLink trait and trademark. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) cancer agency dismissed and edited findings from a draft of its review of the weed killer glyphosate that were at odds with its final conclusion that the chemical probably causes cancer. The original WHO report, issued in 2015 by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a semiautonomous group within the WHO, concluded that glyphosate was a “Group 2a carcinogen, a substance that proba- bly causes cancer in people,” according to Reuters. An investigation by Reuters finds that IARC redacted evidence to the contrary from their report. The original report, as published, contradicts other analyses from groups around the world, according to Reuters. A subsequent analysis by a United Nations and WHO panel concluded that glyphosate from food was “unlikely” to pose a cancer risk to humans, for instance. The US Environmental Protection Agency and the European Food Safety Authority and the European Chemicals Agency have called glyphosate safe. PEOPLE NEWS HM.CLAUSE is pleased to announce the appointment of Rémi Bastien as its new Chief Executive Officer. In his role, Bastien serves as chair of the Global Strategy Team, the governing body of executives that is responsible for crafting and executing the company’s longterm roadmap. DLF updates its breeding program in New Zealand and Denmark with two strong breeder profiles with the start of Marcelo Carena as senior breeder in the NZ team, and Sabrina Rasmussen as turf breeder in the DK team. BUSINESS NEWS Syngenta announced that Adama Agricultural Solutions Ltd and Syngenta AG have entered into binding agreement with Nufarm Limited to sell a portfolio of crop protection products for an agreed transaction value of USD 490 million. The combined portfolio of prod- ucts being divested includes off-patent crop protection formulations in the her- bicides, fungicides, insecticides and other categories in the EEA. No physical assets (apart from inventory) or personnel will be transferred as part of the transaction. Monsanto filed a lawsuit against Arkansas agricultural officials on 20 October over a state proposal to bar sprayings next summer of a controversial type of weed killer manufactured by the company and rival BASF, according to court documents. Complaints mentioned that the herbicide drifted onto crops and caused widespread damage. The head of one of China’s biggest chem- icals companies has played down expec- tations the country will become more open to genetically modified crops in the aftermath of ChemChina’s purchase of Swiss Seeds and agrochemicals group Syngenta. When the $43bn ChemChina deal was announced in early 2016, many suspected it would result in the swift approval of GM plantings in China, since Syngenta specializes in developing and researching GM. That would be a turn- around for a country where several GM grain strands can be imported, but only a few edible crops can be planted due to entrenched domestic fears that the tech- nology poses a security threat. But the issue got little attention at this week’s national congress of China’s Communist Party, despite calls by President Xi Jinping for more modern agriculture to ensure China’s food security.