Colorado Rejects GMO Labeling, Oregon Too Close to Call

DENVER--An initiative that would require labeling of genetically engineered foods failed to rein in the votes in Colorado, but the outcome of a similar measure in Oregon was too close to call early Wednesday.

Opponents of the labeling put more than $36 million into campaigns to defeat the two initiatives, several times more than the amounts raised by proponents of the measures in Colorado ($895,000) and Oregon ($8 million), Reuters reported.

As of Wednesday morning, 66.4 percent of voters had rejected Colorado’s food labeling initiative, according to the Denver Post. Colorado’s measure would have required genetically modified food to carry a label, "Produced With Genetic Engineering", beginning on July 1, 2016.

In Oregon, Measure 92 remained too close to call. Although the measure trailed 49 percent to 51 percent as of 2 a.m. Wednesday, the Oregonian noted that most of the votes that had not been counted were in Multnomah County, where about 61 percent of voters favor labeling.

California's Proposition 37 was the first ballot initiative that proposed labeling of genetically modified foods. But voters in California, and later Washington, rejected labeling measures in 2012 and 2013.

In Vermont, the food industry is challenging the first no-strings-attached GMO labeling law in the nation. Connecticut and Maine have GMO labeling laws on the books, but they don’t take effect unless other states pass similar laws.