May 25, 2018
SumOfUs Organizes Bayer Shareholders to Oppose Proxy Item #2
BONN -- At Bayer’s annual general meeting of stockholders on Friday, May 25th, Bayer shareholders, represented by SumOfUs, an international consumer group, will present a countermotion calling on shareholders not to discharge the Board of Management because the company continued to produce pesticides - clothianidin and imidacloprid - that scientists have linked to the decline of pollinator populations. In a speech to Bayer shareholders, Wiebke Schröder, campaign manager at SumOfUs, will discuss the dangers of bee-killing pesticides and urge shareholders to hold the Board of Management accountable.
VIEW THE COUNTER-MOTION HERE: https://www.bayer.com/en/stockholder-countermotions-2018.pdfx
Before the meeting, SumOfUs members dressed as bees will protest Bayer’s continued production of bee-killing pesticides. Beekeepers and other activists will enact a short skit: “Funeral of the Last Bee” and hand out leaflets to shareholders arriving at the event informing them of the countermotion and urging their support.
VIEW THE LEAFLET HERE: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iUQgIOXm9p2iWZRm3LlewBlxRWZM2LFr2XD4uxAaUhs/edit
“The Bayer Board of Management must be held accountable for the company’s continued focus on the sale of neonicotinoid pesticides which are decimating bees and other pollinators around the world, threatening our food supply.” explained Wiebke Schroeder, Berlin-based Campaign Manager for SumOfUs. “This shortsighted focus on monetizing existing products presents a risk to Bayer shareholders.”
Last month, a qualified majority of European governments voted to widen a ban on three-bee killing pesticides. More than 650,000 people around the world signed onto a petition started by SumOfUs, calling on the European governments to vote in favor of the European Commission’s proposal to widen the ban on bee-killing neonic pesticides.
View the petition here: https://actions.sumofus.org/a/european-neonics-ban-call