In Washington, I-522 is losing. Sigh.

Kari Chisholm

In Washington, the big money from Monsanto, DuPont, Nestle, Coca-Cola, and others we'll call "Big Food" appear to have doomed I-522.

With 46% reporting (and the apparent end of counting for the night), the measure is failing 55-45. (Election results here.) The O's Jeff Mapes has called the race.

Despite a huge lead just two months ago, the proponents were swamped by tens of millions of dollars in ads from the biotech giants. They used the same playbook used by industry across many issues over the years -- "it's expensive and it's confusing".

Nevermind that it wouldn't actually confusing for consumers (you just read the label) and it wouldn't actually be expensive (the 18-month window for new labels fits nicely into the usual label update cycle for most products, not to mention shelf life for food.)

And now, the special interests have won a GMO labeling fight again - just one year after winning in California. It's getting more expensive, however. In California, they spent $47 million. In Washington, the latest number is $22 million - and some believe the final number might as high as $30 million. And Washington is a lot smaller than California.

According to the Stranger (the Portland Mercury's elder sibling up north), there's a fresh GMO fight brewing in Oregon.

And several people have mentioned to the SECB that a similar initiative is being undertaken in Oregon. Dear nonspecific, nondenominational deity, let the good people of Portlandia gently, humanely process this shit to a better outcome than we just had here.

They're probably talking about these guys.

By Kari Chisholm Nov. 05, 2013