Online campaign group Avaaz calls on the EU to block Monsanto''s purchase by Bayer

BRUSSELS-the online campaign group Avaaz asked antitrust agencies of the European Union to block the acquisition of Monsanto for Bayer, saying this would harm innovation and competition and would raise prices.
The 66-billion-dollar agreement, the last of the three great buys in the industry, has faced criticism from environmental groups and agricultural, as well as lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic, concerned about market concentration.
The Avaaz said in a letter to the competition Commissioner of the European Union, Margrethe Vestagerhad, which more than a million people signed the petition that opposes the merger of German and American companies, which, according to the group, would have a major impact on producers.
"She would control more than a quarter of the combined global market for seeds and pesticides and hold even more producers in a product supply chain which threatens biodiversity and food security with the creation of dangerous genetically modified and monocultures dependent on pesticides," said Avaaz''s lawyer, Nick Flynn, in a letter.
The European Commission, whose preliminary assessment of the agreement ends on August 7, did not respond immediately to a request for comment, while Bayer said: "the combination of Bayer and Monsanto will allow us to offer producers more and better solutions by means of technologies, products and complementary geographic knowledge".