On our new GMWatch site we have a history of Bayer whose CropScience divsion is a major player in GM crops. We're putting together these corporate histories because the leading GM firms have a significant historical record and this makes it possible to examine their character and legacy when it comes to issues of public and employee safety and protection, regulatory compliance, customer care, etc.

These issues have particularly significance to the regulation of GM crops, as it is almost entirely dependent on trust, with regulators normally basing their assessments of environmental risk and food safety on data from unpublished studies provided to them in confidence by the GM firms.

The history of Bayer, as we note below, includes crimes on such a scale that is almost beyond imagination. Their intimate involvment and financial and technical assistance to the Nazis has led them to be labelled "degenerate monsters" but Bayer's history also includes many other appalling crimes both before and after World War II.
http://www.gmwatch.org/gm-firms/11153-bayer-a-history

One of Bayer's many post-war scandals involved Factor 8 and this online video gives a clear sense not only of Bayer's role in that scandal but that of the FDA.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2esTgUYo3RI&NR=1

For more of Bayer's extraordinary history + related resources:
http://www.gmwatch.org/gm-firms