Voters in Oregon agree by a 3-to-1 margin that foods made with genetically modified organisms should be labeled, says a poll commissioned by a Portland television station. “The poll found 51 percent of voters would support the idea to 15 percent who are opposed. Another 35 percent aren’t sure how they would vote,” says Willamette Weekly. The poll by KATU and SurveyUSA surveyed 560 likely voters and has a margin of error of +/-4.2 percent. Backers of a labeling law are gathering signatures for a statewide referendum in November.
Ahead of two county-level referendums this spring to bar GMO crops, farmers in southern Oregon negotiated with Syngenta about an on-line database of fields to minimize cross-contamination between biotech and conventional crops, says the Associated Press. It says the state may launch a project to map the location of GMO fields throughout Oregon “and establish buffer zones and exclusion areas for GE crops,” the first such regulation in the nation.