Petition to Regulate GMOs in Humboldt Garners Support: Ordinance Backers Turn in Nearly Double Required Signatures for November Ballot

Over 8,500 signatures collected by the Committee for a GMO Free Humboldt are being verified by the Humboldt County Elections Office to see if GMO restrictions will appear on the ballot this fall.

April 30, 2014 | Source: Times Standard | by Jillian Singh

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Over 8,500 signatures collected by the Committee for a GMO Free Humboldt are being verified by the Humboldt County Elections Office to see if GMO restrictions will appear on the ballot this fall.

The Humboldt County Genetic Contamination Prevention Ordinance would prohibit “propagating, cultivating, raising or growing” genetically modified organisms that the ordinance defines as “being produced by manipulating DNA in a laboratory to overcome natural reproductive barriers.” The ordinance would not prevent food made with genetically engineered ingredients from being sold in local grocery stores.

According to the elections office, 4,387 valid signatures are required to put the ordinance on the ballot. The committee submitted almost double that number on April 22. Humboldt County Assistant Registrar of Voters Kelly Sanders said the office has 30 business days to see if the signatures check out.

“If they do, we’ll notify the county Board of Supervisors, who will direct us to put the measure on the ballot for the November election,” Sanders said.

Humboldt County 3rd District Supervisor Mark Lovelace said he’s heard from both sides of the issue.

“There are a lot of agriculture producers who feel they will be able to market their products better if the county is known as GMO-free,” Lovelace said. “I’ve heard corn is one of the most commonly genetically modified crops out there, so the ordinance passing would present certain challenges for local producers to find non-GMO strains of corn to work in our climate. But non-GMO corn was grown here long before GMOs existed, so if the measure did come to be, old practices would have to be recreated.”