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Bayer in crop contamination and hiding behind old name shocker

On 15th August it emerged that Bayer’s new agricultural wing, Bayer CropScience (formerly Aventis Crop Science), was responsible for the illegal planting of genetically modified (GM) oil seed rape (OSR) contaminated with an unauthorised GM crop line in field trials across the UK.
GM seed, planted at more than 20 farm scale trial sites in the UK since 1999, was contaminated with substantial quantities of an unauthorised variety of GM OSR. The contaminating variety contains genes giving resistance to the antibiotics neomycin and kanamycin. The implications of this are potentially serious. Scientists have expressed concern that use of antibiotic resistance genes as marker genes in food crops may lead to the proliferation of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Recent studies suggest that it is possible for modified DNA from GM crops to be taken up by bacteria in the human gut. Both neomycin and kanamycin are still used in the treatment of a number of potentially fatal diseases.
News of the contamination has caused an outcry in the UK, with widespread calls for the suspension of the last round of the winter OSR farm scale trials. It is possible that Bayer CropScience may even face criminal proceedings for failing to prevent the contamination.
Meanwhile Bayer CropScience, the company who are now responsible for the mess, is doing a good job of hiding behind its old identity Aventis CropScience (which became part of Bayer CropScience in early June). Thus far Bayer’s public image has remained fairly unscathed, ensuring that all negative publicity is directed towards Aventis, a company that no longer has any involvement in GM crops.
In late August DEFRA announced that the batches of OSR seed to be used in the final round of farm scale trials had been found to be free of contamination, and that the planting of these trials would continue as usual. Days later on 2nd September Aventis CropScience Ltd officially changed its name to Bayer CropScience.