GMO Food Critics See Losses at Ballot Box—and a More Hostile Congress
Ballot initiatives that would have mandated GMO food labels failed in Colorado and Oregon.
It received a lot less attention than the Republicans' successful attempt to seize control of the U.S. Senate, but Tuesday's midterm elections may have marked the broadest attempt yet by critics of genetically modified food to advance their cause at the ballot box.
The anti-GMO movement's two biggest efforts—ballot initiatives in Colorado and Oregon that would have required labels for genetically altered food—were roundly defeated by voters in those states on Tuesday. (Related: "4 Ways Election Results Could Intensify U.S. Energy Battles.")
But opponents made local headway in Hawaii and California, where voters adopted two county-level bans on the production of genetically modified organisms—GMOs, or plants or animals genetically altered using DNA from bacteria, viruses, or other plants and animals.
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