Missouri Governor Jay Nixon (D) will travel to Germany next month to meet with Bayer executives about the company’s plans to purchase Monsanto.
Nixon says he’ll tell Bayer Chairman Werner Baumann that if the proposed acquisition is approved, Missouri’s workers and economy must benefit as a result.
“To sit with he and the management team over there (Germany) and begin to make sure that some of the things they said as they began the process about keeping St. Louis as the plant science hub of the world, that we can put some strength into those statements,” Nixon says.
Nixon’s recent op-ed in the “St. Louis Post-Dispatch” notes that Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant and Mr. Baumann both confirmed to him that the combined agricultural business of Bayer and Monsanto will have its global Seeds & Traits and North American commercial headquarters in St. Louis. Nixon says Monsanto currently employs more than 4,300 people in Missouri.
Nixon says Bayer’s 240-acre facility in Kansas City produces some of the world’s leading seed treatments and agricultural chemicals.
“Bayer is a company that has significant investment in Missouri. I visited a plant in the Kansas City area that’s been there for over 40 years. Almost 800 employees there, high-end, high-tech plant. They’re very happy with that. So I think if the merger goes through, I think there’s ways for Missouri to benefit from it,” Nixon says.
The “Washington Post” reported in September that the $66 billion deal “could reshape the development of seeds and pesticides necessary to fueling the planet’s food supply.”
